IF AMERICA FAIL 



IF AMERICA FAIL 



OUR NATIONAL MISSION AND OUR 
POSSIBLE FUTURE 



By 
SAMUEL ZANE BATTEN 



The only nations which can have a future, the only nations which 

deserve the name historic, are those who feel the importance and 

value of their institutions and prize them. — Tolstoi 



PHILADELPHIA 

THE JUDSON PRESS 

BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS LOS ANGELES 

KANSAS CITY SEATTLE TORONTO 



.B36 



Copyright, 1922, by 
GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 



Published September, 1022 



Printed in U. S. A. 

00123 22 

©CUG86442 



PREFACE 

In every age, as Carlyle suggests, there is some one 
people that enshrines the largest mass of living in- 
terests for humanity as a whole. Men of every race 
might readily accept this estimate provided they 
were allowed to name this people. 

In our time several peoples, each possessing strik- 
ing characteristics, are playing a fateful part in the 
drama of universal history. Not for a moment do 
we mean to ignore the worth or significance of any 
of these. Most fully do we believe that there is a 
God of history who calls nations to great historic 
tasks. The fact that one nation has historic signifi- 
cance and a divine calling, does not imply that it 
alone has value in universal history and that other 
peoples carry no values for the world. In truth it 
implies the direct opposite. Not in any provincial 
spirit, therefore, but with a profound reverence for 
the qualities and values of the various races, do we 
claim that in many respects one of the most out- 
standing peoples in our age is that branch of the 
Anglo-Saxon race bearing the name American. For 
this age America enshrines the largest mass of liv- 
ing interests entrusted to any one nation. Perhaps 



Preface 

more vital issues are wrapped up in our life than in 
any other people at this hour. 

But this is a changeful world and things are on 
the march. " Westward the star of empire takes its 
way." We may not read the riddle of the future, 
and it is not wise to predict historic developments. 
But two things seem certain : The drama of history 
for the next thousand years will be played around 
the Pacific Ocean. Two thousand years ago the cen- 
ter of world progress was around the eastern Medi- 
terranean Sea. For the past thousand years the 
eventful drama has been played around the Atlantic 
Ocean. During the coming millennium the history 
of the world will be shaped around the shores of 
the Pacific. The second fact is that three races will 
play the dominant part in this drama. These are 
the Anglo-Saxon, the Slavic, and the Chinese races. 
For weal or woe, these peoples, either in competi- 
tion or in cooperation, will shape the course of 
events for centuries to come. America, which lies 
between the two oceans, seems destined to play a 
leading role in the world history during the next 
thousand years and may have much to do with the 
progress of the kingdom of God. 

In this brief study we cannot discuss the life and 
mission of any of the other nations. But this book 
is written in the conviction that America is an elect 
nation and is called to a great task in universal 
history. For this reason our success, the fulfilment 



Preface 

of our calling, means much not only to ourselves but 
to every nation on the globe. For this reason also 
our failure, the forfeiture of our calling, may not 
only bring discredit upon ourselves, but may delay 
the redemption of the human race and the progress 
of the kingdom of God. If we are to play a worthy 
part in the world drama and exert a wise leadership, 
it is essential that America perfect her institutions, 
develop a worthy life, and thereby qualify herself 
for the commanding place she should hold in the 
world's future. 

The hour has not yet come for any one to judge 
our nation's success or to forecast our possible fu- 
ture. But this is a universe of law, of cause and ef- 
fect. Whatever goes into the first of life goes into 
all life. God is not mocked ; whatever men sow, that 
shall they also reap. In the case of an individual 
whose lifetime is limited by some threescore years 
and ten, we can usually see the working of this law. 
In the case of a nation whose lifetime is measured 
by millenniums, the relation between cause and con- 
sequence is not so quickly evident. Because sentence 
against a people's deeds is not executed speedily, na- 
tions grow careless and think they have repealed the 
law of the moral harvest. But with nations as with 
individuals, today not only precedes tomorrow, it is 
the parent of tomorrow. Tomorrow will be as to- 
day, only more so. The surest way for America to 
fail is for America to think that tomorrow will take 



Preface 

care of itself. If the nation is to have a great and 
worthy future the consciousness of our national call- 
ing must be transformed into a serious national 
purpose. 

Says Prof. H. S. Nash, " To so write the history 
of a nation that it shall come to a deeper knowledge 
of itself and shall have a more serious sense of its 
vocation in universal history, is an act of piety as 
truly spiritual in its essential nature as to write an 
* Imitation of Christ * or a * Pilgrim's Progress.' " 
To do something, be it ever so humble, that shall 
awaken in the men of this nation the consciousness 
of a high mission and summon them to the accom- 
plishment of heroic tasks, this is the largest service 
that any man can render to his time and nation. 

This book is only the brief outline of a great sub- 
ject and does not attempt to fill in the picture. 
Whether the author has fulfilled his chosen task 
wisely and well, is a small consideration. The ques- 
tions here considered are among the most vital that 
can engage the attention of men. He who merely 
succeeds in calling attention to them, will have ren- 
dered no small service. The writer dares to hope, 
however, that many men with larger qualifications 
for the task, will develop the thesis he has suggested. 
Beyond all, he hopes that the teachers and prophets 
of the land may interpret our prophetic national 
history and enable the people to know the things 
that make for their well-being. 



Preface 

The making of a just, righteous, brotherly Chris- 
tian nation, is the supremest achievement possible 
to a people. Some time, somewhere, this end will 
be attained. That nation in the past might have 
been Israel or Rome, Germany or Britain. That 
it may be America, is the ideal and the purpose the 
author hopes to see become dominant in the hearts 
of his people. 

A word may be said with reference to the course 
of thought. In the first chapter we consider the 
meaning and mission of America. This raises the 
question concerning the fulfilment of our mission. 
In the second chapter we glance over the field of 
history and note some of the causes of the decline 
and failure of nations. In the following three chap- 
ters we consider how far these causes may be at 
work in America and what this denotes concerning 
our future. In the remaining chapters, from six 
to thirteen, we deal in a constructive way with some 
of the things that America must do to strengthen 
its life and to make its calling and election sure. 
The success or the failure of America is a fact of 
profound significance to the world. It ought to be 
a question of supreme moment to every citizen of 
the Republic. Above all, it ought to be one of the 
chief interests of every believer in the kingdom of 
God. 



CONTENTS 

PARTI 
THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Mission of America 3 

11. The Causes of National Decline 22 

III. The Power of Wealth 41 

IV. The Increasing Social Pressure 63 

V. The Passing of the American 82 

PART II 
THE CONDITIONS OF NATIONAL SUCCESS 

VI. The Search for Justice 109 

VII. The Conservation of Our Natural 

Resources 124 

VIII. The Practise of Democracy 145 

IX. The Discipline of the Nation 164 

X. The Preservation of the American 

Family 187 

XL The Americanization OF the People. . 206 

XII. The Supremacy of the Spiritual 225 

XIII. The Christianization OF the Nation.. 243 



PART I 
THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS 



THE MISSION OF AMERICA 

" Where there is no vision the people perish." 
Right thought goes before right action. The picture 
is older than the paint and canvas. The plans and 
specifications are antecedent to the building. It is 
the light in the eye that gives purpose to the hand. 
Great and worthy things do not come about by 
chance. Moral ends are achieved by moral purpose. 
For a man and for a nation, the most vital fact is 
the ideal cherished, the goal sought, the conviction 
of a work and mission. The ideal Achilles, we are 
reminded, made the real heroes of Thermopylae and 
the Granicus. The conviction that they were . a 
chosen people made Israel the miracle of history. 

That the American Republic has some meaning 
and mission in the world has long been a conviction 
with its people. Many of the men who founded the 
colonies felt the hand of God upon them, and 
wrought as in the Great Taskmaster's eye and for 
his purpose in the world. ^ Adopting and adapting 
the words of Oliver Cromwell,^ " We are a people 
with the clear stamp of God upon us, whose appear- 
ances and providences are not to be outmatched by 
any Judah whatsoever." This justifies the word of 
Emerson : ^ " America is but another name for op- 

1 Bancroft, " History of the United States," Vol. I, p. 214. 
^ Cromwell, " Fourth Speech in Parliament." 
' " Miscellanies," p. 279. 



4 If America Fail 

portunity. Our whole history appears like a last ef- 
fort of Divine Providence in behalf of the human 
race." If there is a God in history who calls nations 
and determines the course of events, then America 
is indeed a called and chosen nation. 

The nation that would fulfil its high destiny must 
believe that it has a mission and must consciously 
seek to realize that mission. In a real sense the na- 
tion is but the person writ large. For generations 
it may be, a people lives a more or less instinctive 
and undeliberate life. It is conquering its territory, 
building cities, developing its resources, growing in 
numbers and power, and assuming a place among 
the nations of the earth. It is dimly conscious of 
the fact that it has some work to do and some mis- 
sion to fulfil ; but it does not fully know what these 
may be. There comes a time, however, when it 
awakes to full self-consciousness and begins to ask 
why it is here, what it has to do, what it has to fear, 
and what it may hope. As with the person, so with 
the nation, such a time is usually one of storm and 
stress, of painful self-scrutiny and doubtful mind. 
But by and by the light breaks through the mist, 
and the people gain a sense of direction and know 
the great thing they are called to do. 

The American Republic has come to such a time 
of self-discovery. Two sets of causes combine to 
make the present a turning-point in national des- 
tiny; they are compelling us to reconceive our na- 
tional ideal and are giving us a sense of direction. 
First, is the need of a clearer national vision. We 
have done great things in the past whereof history 
will tell "till the last syllable of recorded time." 
We have developed a continent at an incredible rate 



The Mission of America 5 

and have created wealth faster than any other peo- 
ple. We have gained our independence and pre- 
served our national unity. And just when one 
might expect the nation to feel proud of its achieve- 
ments, we Americans have grown uncertain of our- 
selves. We have discovered that many things are 
wrong in the nation's life; that influences are at 
work which divide the people and make us of doubt- 
ful mind concerning our mission and our future. 
We have discovered also that the accepted maxims 
of the nation are primitive and provincial ; that our 
policies and programs belong to a nation of villagers 
rather than to a nation among nations. 

Secondly, the World War marks the close of one 
era and the opening of a new chapter in our history. 
Hitherto we have lived much to ourselves, and on 
the advice of the Father of his Country have 
avoided all entangling alliances with European na- 
tions. We have approved the policy of the Monroe 
Doctrine and have limited our interest to the West- 
ern hemisphere. This has implied our natural sepa- 
rateness and has meant that we have no part in 
world affairs. But the World War taught us that 
we can not stand apart as mere spectators; it has 
called us out of our isolation and has given us a 
stake in world life as an active participant. From 
this time forward things will be different with us, 
and a new national policy is imperative. Thought, 
life, trade, diplomacy have become international and 
world-related. America, it is now clear, is a part 
of the world and must live as a nation in the family 
of nations. There can be no going back into the 
old isolation ; henceforth for good or ill we must live 
in the world and play a part in the world's struggle. 
B 



6 If America Fail 

No reliance upon former convictions, " no restate- 
ment of older principles, no fumbling among past 
precedents, no patching up of older policies will an- 
swer the challenge of the future." * 

The American Republic stands at the crossroads 
of history. Different roads leading to diverse des- 
tinies are open; but the options are few. Many- 
lights shine before us; some are fixed stars, some, 
mere will-o'-the-wisps. Which way lies success? 
What is the ideal we should set before ourselves? 
What is our real mission in the world? What kind 
of conduct shall we require of ourselves? What 
shall be our national policy for the future? What 
must we do to make our calling and election sure? 
The practical thing for the traveler who is uncer- 
tain of his path, is not to proceed with all speed in 
any direction, but to stop long enough to inquire for 
the right road. So the wise thing for a nation to do 
that has stumbled upon a turning-point of history, 
is not to behave as if nothing had happened, but 
carefully to consider whether what it has done thus 
far is the right thing. Rational human life de- 
mands conscious and rational action. It is neces- 
sary therefore that we catch a vision of our goal, 
come under the spell of a dominating ideal, under- 
stand our work, and move in the right direction. 
Nations as well as men, have mistaken an ignis 
fatuus for the pole-star and have followed it to their 
own undoing. A wrong ideal may be quite as fatal 
as no ideal at all. How then can we know our true 
mission and distinguish the light of heaven from a 
will-o'-the-wisp? 

" The Bible of every nation," says Carlyle, " is its 

* Usher, " The Challenge of the Future," p. 17. 



The Mission of America 7 

own history." The history of Israel we have learned 
to believe is a sample and type of God's dealings 
with the children of men. In the case of Israel we 
find the evidences of God's presence in the history 
of the people, and in and through events we read his 
purpose. We are not given in advance any key to 
our history, and we have no Isaiah or Jeremiah to 
read the inner meaning of things. But using the 
history of Israel as a key we may interpret our own 
history, and in and through the prophetic events of 
our national life we may read the will of God for 
our land. 

We shall notice very briefly some of the events in 
the discovery and settlement of this country we call 
America ; then we shall read the significance of these 
events, and this will suggest some of the meaning of 
America. 

I. The Conquest of the New World 

To the end of time the honor of discovering Amer- 
ica must be given to Christopher Columbus. But 
Columbus was after all a child of his age ; if he had 
not discovered America when he did, some one else 
would surely have done so in a short time ; and per- 
haps would have done it more thoroughly. The con- 
quests of the Turks in the East had closed the old 
trade-routes to India, and so men were perforce 
driven to find another way to that land. For a long 
time many men believed that the earth was round, 
though all supposed that it was much smaller than 
it proved to be. 

The hour came when the Genoese set out on that 
memorable voyage which has had such momentous 
consequences to the human race. Columbus was 



8 If America Fail 

a devout Catholic, and he went forth with the bless- 
ing of the church to find new lands for the Church 
of Rome and for the sovereigns of Spain. History 
gives us the account of the voyage, how day after 
day his vessel was headed toward the North Atlantic 
coast, how finally the sailors grew rebellious, and it 
was only a question of time when they would break 
out in open mutiny. Then one day the sailors saw a 
flock of birds of beautiful colors and delicate wings 
flying toward the southwest. At once the vessel's 
course was changed, and for some days they sailed 
southward. Surely if there is a Providence in the 
fall of a sparrow we may well believe there is a 
providence in the flight of a flock of parakeets. At 
last the sailors saw the welcome land, they went 
ashore, raised the cross, and took possession in the 
name of the Catholic sovereigns of Spain. In a 
later voyage Columbus landed upon the South Amer- 
ican mainland, but to the day of his death he did 
not know that he had discovered a new hemisphere. 
In 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued a bull partition- 
ing the non-Christian world into two parts. In a 
rather indefinite way he gave Spain all lands west 
of an imaginary meridian one hundred leagues west 
of Cape de Verde Islands, while to Portugal was 
given all lands to the east. 

The story of the settlement of this continent is 
full of deep significance. A strange fate seemed to 
defeat the efforts of Spain to found colonies on the 
mainland of the north. Nearly a hundred years 
passed, and yet Spain had only a few missions in 
the far southwest. Later she attempted to plant col- 
onies in Florida ; but the French, seeking footing in 
that land, exterminated the Spanish and held the 



The Mission of America 9 

country. The French also attempted to make settle- 
ments in various parts of the land, but a fate no less 
strange defeated their efforts. They established a 
number of trading-points in Canada, but they made 
few attempts to colonize the land for a hundred 
years or more. The French and the Spanish each 
opposing the other held back the work of coloniza- 
tion till the beginnings of the seventeenth century. 
By that time the Mayflower had anchored in Massa- 
chusetts Bay, and the English had begun to plant 
permanent colonies. From one cause and another 
the real colonization of the North American conti- 
nent was delayed till the English people came. 

It has been suggested that Providence times 
events in the interests of his kingdom. Certainly 
there was a remarkable timing of events in the 
early decades of the seventeenth century. During 
the years that Englishmen were struggling to gain 
a foothold in America, England herself was be- 
coming democratic and free. Great events were 
transpiring in the mother country — the overthrow 
of the Stuarts and the establishment of the Pro- 
tectorate — and these changes at home diverted 
attention from the colonies. During this time, 
however, several colonies obtained charters in 
which Protestant principles were fully recognized 
and democracy was made possible. After the death 
of Cromwell and the restoration of the monarchy 
colonization almost wholly ceased. But the seeds 
had been planted in the new land, and for nearly a 
hundred years they were allowed to grow with very 
little interference from the old world. 

It is easy to see a special significance in this whole 
process of settlement and colonization. If America 



10 If America Fail 

had been colonized at the time of the discovery by 
either French, Spanish, or English, it would have 
been Catholic and monarchical. If it had been col- 
onized by the English in the time of Elizabeth it 
might not have been Catholic, but it would not have 
been fully Protestant, for Church and State were 
united and democracy was not born. If colonization 
had been delayed for a few years it would have been 
impossible under the Restoration to obtain such lib- 
eral charters. If colonization had begun at almost 
any other time it would have been undertaken by a 
very different kind of people, with a different re- 
ligious faith, with different political ideals, and for 
very different ends. For a hundred years after the 
fall of the Commonwealth the colonies had time to 
plant themselves, to grow in their own way, to de- 
velop individuality and freedom. In the various 
colonies there were various types of religious life 
and political institutions, but practically all were in- 
tensely Protestant and largely democratic, and the 
founders, predominantly men of deep religious feel- 
ing, had the profound conviction that they were 
instruments in the hands of Providence.^ 

In the earlier years of colonization of North Amer- 
ica, peoples of various nationalities were represented 
by different colonies. Rivalry inevitably existed, 
and perhaps was necessary to detect the strains that 
should survive. In the course of time the Spanish 
colonies fall out of the race so far as the possession 
of North America is concerned. The English col- 
onies absorb the Dutch and Swedish, and the issue 
settles down to a struggle between the English and 
the French. We need not here consider all the fac- 

» Bancroft, " History of the United States," Vol. I, p. 214. 



The Mission of America 11 

tors represented by these two peoples ; but they are 
two different and opposite types. 

The French colonies located in Canada repre- 
sented monarchy and autocracy in government, 
which was paternalistic to the last extreme. Never 
perhaps were more faithful efforts made to keep a 
people loyal than were made by the French king. 
The French colonists were petted and coddled in 
every possible way by the home government. Every- 
thing that government could do for them was done ; 
in fact the government was altogether too solicitous. 
It would be incredible were it not attested by such 
abundant evidence, that the affairs of any people 
would be subjected to such minute and close super- 
vision as were the affairs of the French colonists in 
Canada." More than that, these French colonists 
were intensely Roman Catholic in their religious 
faith. Never perhaps was greater zeal and devotion 
shown than was shown by the Jesuit missionaries 
in Canada and around the Great Lakes. But mis- 
sionaries and people were most loyal to the pope and 
most intolerant to other faiths. 

The English colonies, as we have seen, were 
founded by men of a different faith and received 
very different treatment from the home government. 
As a rule, the English colonies asked nothing of the 
mother country but to be let alone; and for nearly 
a hundred years England had enough things to di- 
vert her attention, and so the colonists had their 
way. Here in America they planted the seeds of 
the old Saxon institutions and developed these to 
meet a new situation. The New England town 
meeting that had its prototype in the forests of 

« Parkman, " The Old Regime in Canada." 



12 If America Fail 

Germany two thousand years ago^ flourished in the 
colonies and became an established institution. The 
people of each community were accustomed to meet 
and consider together their common affairs with per- 
fect freedom. By the very nature of the case such 
people became independent in thought, and their in- 
stitutions became democratic in form and spirit. 
Not only so, but these people were most intense Prot- 
estants; and they carried their convictions to the 
limit. It is true that in Massachusetts colonies an 
attempt was made to establish a kind of church gov- 
ernment which, while democratic in form, was auto- 
cratic in spirit. Roger Williams expressed the feel- 
ing of many when he declared, " I came from 
England to escape the tyranny of the Lords Bishops, 
and I do not intend to subject myself to the tyranny 
of the Lords Brethren." When at last he was " en- 
larged " out of Massachusetts colonies, to use the 
euphuistic phrase of Cotton Mather, he established 
a colony in which full civil and religious freedom 
was guaranteed. The idea made way, and in time 
it became prevalent in all of the colonies. 

The time came, as it was bound to come, when 
the issue was joined between these peoples for the 
final struggle. For a generation and more, during 
the early eighteenth century, there had been skir- 
mishes here and there. Finally the hour struck 
when the question must be decided one way or the 
other and once for all. The war line shifted back 
and forth between Canada and the colonies; at last 
the forces met for the decisive struggle around 
Quebec. In the number of men engaged, the battle 
on the Heights of Abraham was a trifling affair; 
in the fateful issues at stake, it takes rank as one 



The Mission of America 13 

of the most decisive battles of the world. John 
Fiske declared that the victory of Wolfe is the 
greatest turning-point yet discernible in modern 
times. In that struggle it was decided whether 
America should be French, autocratic, and Cath- 
olic, or Anglo-Saxon, democratic, and Protestant. 

We are not here discussing the question whether 
the Anglo-Saxon race is superior or inferior to 
others. Such discussions no longer have any mean- 
ing or value. National traits, like individual apti- 
tudes, are different. Perhaps each one of the great 
races of the world is as necessary to the complete- 
ness of humanity as any other. Each people, we 
may believe, is called to utter some syllable of the 
manifold wisdom and many-sided purpose of God. 
It takes all of us together to spell out the meaning 
of the world and to fulfil the whole task of history. 
Then too, we have no standard with which to mea- 
sure such values. Without discussing the profitless 
question of English superiority or inferiority from 
the point of view of universal history, we note that 
men of the English race, rather than any other, 
gained control of this section and planted here cer- 
tain great institutions. This race, we all admit, has 
some great and glaring defects of temper and char- 
acter; its institutions represent but one type of na- 
tional life. But it has some qualities that gave it 
preeminence in America; and its institutions as de- 
veloped here have some meaning and value in uni- 
versal history. 

II. The Meaning and Mission of America 

We must read the divine purpose for our nation as 
it is disclosed in and through the events of our his- 



14 If America Fail 

tory. The supremacy of the English-speaking race 
in this part of North America known as the United 
States is a fact of prophetic significance; in the in- 
stitutions they developed and the ideals they cher- 
ished we find some clear intimations of our national 
mission. 

1, We are called to develop democratic institu- 
tions. The people who came to the New England 
colonies were lovers of freedom and were deter- 
mined to build their institutions upon democratic 
lines. In the cabin of the Mayflower these pioneers 
drew up an agreement for the new colony which 
was a true expression of their deepest life. Ban- 
croft grows eloquent over this simple transaction 
and declares that in the cabin of the Mayflower hu- 
manity recovered its rights and instituted govern- 
ment on the basis of equal laws enacted by all the 
people for the general good. It must be said, how- 
ever, that these Pilgrims and Puritans of New En- 
gland did not succeed in establishing a pure democ- 
racy. It remained for Roger Williams in Rhode 
Island to carry the principle to its conclusion and 
establish a government that was democratic in the 
fullest sense of the word. 

2. We are called to create and realize the demo- 
cratic state. The term democracy as applied to a 
form of government is old; but the reality back of 
the word belongs to recent times. There were so- 
called democracies in ancient Greece, and Aristotle 
has devoted a large part of his treatise on " Poli- 
tics " to discussion of this form of government. But 
careful study reveals the fact that democracy in the 
better sense of the word was wholly unknown in 
the ancient world. In the so-called democracies of 



The Mission of America 15 

Greece more than one-half of the people were slaves 
and only a small proportion had any voice in the 
government. Democracy in the best and fullest 
sense of the word is a Christian product and finds 
the origin of its principles and ideals in the great 
truths of Christianity.'^ 

Democracy in the words of one of its best repre- 
sentatives, is " government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people." This great and signifi- 
cant statement defines democracy in its political as- 
pects. But it does not carry us back behind the form 
to the inner and vitalizing principles, and these are 
all-important here. Democracy, according to many 
modern thinkers, is a general term and includes the 
three elements, liberty, equality, and fraternity. 
This shows that democracy is at once a confession 
of faith, a principle of action, and a form of gov- 
ernment. " What is democracy? " asks Brooke Foss 
Westcott, and he says : * 

The idea of democracy is not, if we look below the surface, 
as much a form of government as a confession of human 
brotherhood. It is the equal recognition of mutual obliga- 
tions. It is the confession of common duties, common aims, 
common responsibilities. True democracy — and in this lies 
its abiding strength — substitutes duties for rights. This sub- 
stitution changes the center of gravity of our whole social 
system and brings the promise of stable peace. 

As such he maintains it is the modern equivalent of 
the three great principles of the kingdom — right- 
eousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is 
the great, glad, new truth which the Stars and 
Stripes announce to the world. 

^Jellinek, "The Rights of Man and the Citizen." 
» " The Incarnation and Common Life," p. 349. 



16 If America Fail 

3. We are called to develop a free religious life. 
The term Protestant that is sometimes used to char- 
acterize this form of religion and life, is an unsatis- 
factory one. It is a negative term, and such terms 
are always partial, local, transient. Being a nega- 
tive term, it falls short of the larger truth implied 
in our national life. Beyond all, in its historical 
meaning it has a certain church in view and is a 
reaction against papal assumptions. There have 
been times in the past when it was necessary to 
protest against the assumptions of Rome and to in- 
sist upon the separation of Church and State. But 
after all, this is but a partial and negative aspect of 
the larger truth which must always be kept in mind. 
For our purpose we prefer the term here used — free 
religious life. 

This free religious life rests upon certain funda- 
mental principles and carries definite, important 
corollaries. The great Reformation of the sixteenth 
century was inspired by two great ideas and pro- 
jected on two great lines — justification by faith, and 
the priesthood of all believers. According to the 
first, each man has the privilege of access to the 
Eternal without the intervention of any priest ; and 
so his faith stands in his own personal vision and 
choice. According to the second, every man re- 
deemed by Christ's blood is made a priest and king 
unto God ; and this honor have all the saints. These 
great truths are veritable thunderbolts of God 
breaking in pieces many of the assumptions of men. 
" The principle of justification by faith alone 
brought with it the freedom of individual thought 
and conscience against authority." ^ The priesthood 

» Bancroft, " History of the United States," Vol. I, p. 178. 



The Mission of America 17 

of all believers affirms the sacredness of man and 
the equality of all. There is no special class of men 
with authority to rule over their fellows or to claim 
homage from them. The first of these great truths, 
then, is the Magna Carta of liberty of conscience; 
the second is the eternal guaranty of equality among 
men. 

And this free religious life carries with it three 
important corollaries. First, it recognizes the right 
of every person to see and think and believe for him- 
self without the constraint of any priest, council, or 
government. Secondly, it implies the competency 
of each to find truth for himself and to know truth 
from error. Finally, it declares that Church and 
State are both divine institutions, each serving a 
necessary purpose in human redemption, both seek- 
ing the same great kingdom of God, but separate in 
function and different in method. This does not 
mean that each man by himself, without any aid 
from his fellows, can find all truth and have all wis- 
dom. But it does mean that this aid should be freely 
sought and freely given. And this does not mean 
the separation of religion from political affairs, than 
which nothing could be more unchristian and dan- 
gerous. But it does mean that religion concerns all 
life and all relations, that Church and State work by 
different means, and that the best results for the 
kingdom of God are attained when the two are 
separate in function and each is free to do its 
own work. 

4. America is called to create a Christian civili- 
zation. This very term is at once a confession and 
a challenge. The world knows what we mean by 
civilization — the development of social and political 



18 If America Fail 

life, the subjection of nature to man's uses, the es- 
tablishment of social order, and the creation of civil 
institutions. In a general way the world knows 
what we mean by Christianity, that whole system 
of life and truth and power that is revealed in the 
person and teaching of Jesus Christ. But thus far 
the world has never known what we mean by a 
Christian civilization. For Christianity has been 
largely limited to the individual and the church and 
has never been interpreted and applied in the wide 
ranges of man's social and political life, and civil 
and industrial society has developed without the in- 
spiration of the Christian ideal or the power of the 
Christian spirit. 

Thus far, owing in part to a partial interpretation 
of the Christian ideal and in part to the opposition 
of men, there has been a dropped thread in the loom 
of history ; and as a result the fabric of civil society 
is imperfect. But the purpose of God in our world 
compels us to believe that men and nations are here 
to accept the good news of the kingdom and build a 
Christian social order. In a real way, it is our call- 
ing as a nation to take up this dropped thread of 
history; to interpret the Christian ideal both in 
Church and State, to incarnate it in our national in- 
stitutions, and to create a truly Christian civiliza- 
tion. To see this ideal is faith, and to work toward 
it is success. To fall below this ideal is better than 
to succeed in any lesser purpose. 

5. Carrying out this principle, we may say that 
we are called to fulfil a Messianic service among the 
nations. It is not possible to discuss this Messianic 
idea in any detail. But in brief it signifies that life 
means service and that man is called to be a servant 



The Mission of America 19 

and agent of God in the process of human redemp- 
tion ; that man is here not to be ministered unto but 
to minister and to give himself a ransom for others ; 
that power and wealth, opportunity and life, are to 
be held in trust for all and are to be used in service 
of mankind. 

In the past, men have been content to give the 
great Messianic principle of Christianity a personal 
and limited scope and application. And in so doing 
they have missed the larger meaning of Christianity 
and the true calling of nations. The principles that 
are true for the person are no less true for society. 
A nation, no less than an individual, exists not to be 
ministered unto but to minister and to give its life 
in service of others. The nation, no less than the 
person and the church, is to live for the same pur- 
pose as that which moved Jesus Christ up Calvary. 

6. In fine, we are called to he a righteous and min- 
istering people, to seek after the kingdom and its 
justice, to bless the family of nations, and to use our 
strength not in rulership but in service. 

There have been powerful nations in the past ; but 
not one has ever been righteous in all of its ways; 
not one has ever interpreted the idea of national 
righteousness. Some have sought to dominate the 
earth; others have sought to control the world's 
trade. Each and all they have exalted themselves 
and despised other people. Many of them have re- 
lied upon armies and have trusted in navies; they 
have envied the weak neighbor his bit of land and 
have not hesitated to seize it by force. And in so 
doing they have mortgaged their future and have 
gone down in failure. It is our calling to do a great, 
new, and wonderful thing in the world. We are 



20 If America Fail 

here to serve the family of nations, and to make our 
national policy the expression of this truth. We 
may extend our trade, but trade must serve hu- 
manity. We may have great influence in the world, 
but it is to be the influence of righteousness and not 
the rattling of the saber. 

We are called to do this great, new, wonderful 
thing in the world — to be a democratic people, to 
create a Christian type of human society, to develop 
free institutions, to realize the democratic type of 
religious life, to incarnate in our national life the 
principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, to il- 
lustrate liberty under law, to maintain equality of 
opportunity, and to establish the reign of brother- 
hood among men. We are privileged, perhaps, to be 
a great and strong and rich nation, but this is not 
itself our national mission and gives us no special 
significance. We may be permitted to become a 
great trading and commercial people, but this by 
itself is not our real mission and primary calling. 
We may continue to hold a vast extent of territory, 
but this in itself is no guaranty of our greatness and 
contains no promise of our destiny. We are not 
called to speak the masterful word in world politics, 
to make our demands feared in every part of the 
globe. We are rather called to be a democratic, 
righteous. Christian people, to bless the world by the 
force of our example, to give our children and our 
wealth to serve the people of earth, to perform a 
Messianic service and witness for the great princi- 
ples of the kingdom — liberty, equality, and frater- 
nity. 

America is not a country merely, not primarily a 
form of government. America is a gospel, an ideal, 



The Mission of America 21 

a faith, a spirit, a state of heart, a set of principles, 
a trinity of ideas, an interpretation of the kingdom 
of God, the far-off goal of history. 

Of all this we shall speak more at length in chap- 
ters that follow. 



II 

THE CAUSES OF NATIONAL DECLINE 

The field of human history has well been called the 
graveyard of nations. In age after age nations have 
arisen and flourished and played a large place in the 
world drama. But one and all they have declined, 
some early, others after many generations ; in every 
case the bright hope of morning ended in dismal 
failure and desolate night. Memphis, Thebes, Nine- 
veh, Jerusalem, Bagdad, each was once the capital 
of a great empire that echoed with the laughter of 
children and glittered with the pomp of armies. 
Long ago the doom fell, the glory faded, the power 
passed. Where once were palaces of kings and 
homes of happy peoples, wild beasts howl and sands 
of the desert drift. Today these are but the names 
of vanished empires, synonyms of broken hopes and 
lost causes. 

The one who surveys the procession of nations will 
be puzzled by the many changes and failures. See- 
ing only the surface of things he will be tempted to 
say that chance reigns in human affairs and a sati- 
rist is upon the throne. Is history but the graveyard 
of fallen ambitions? Is the path of humanity a 
highway lost in desert sands ? Is human struggle an 
endless round of hopes closing ever in defeat? 
Viewing history in its long reaches and studying 
events in causal connections, one finds that the great 
processes of change have a moral meaning and that 
22 



The Causes of National Decline 23 

law reigns throughout. Men and nations are ever 
passing before a moral judgment-seat, and the doom 
that falls is of man's own making. In a real sense 
the history of the world is the judgment of the 
world, and nations like men are ever going to the 
right hand with the sheep or to the left hand with 
the goats. Changing the figure but preserving the 
inner principle, nations like persons are finding their 
mission and growing in grace, or they are missing 
the way and are losing their life. In a word, they 
fall into two classes, living or dying nations. Here 
is a fact which challenges consideration, for Amer- 
ica belongs to one or the other of these classes. 

In this universe things do not fall out by chance 
or accident, but come about in an orderly sequence. 
This is true in the laboratory, in the wheat-field, in 
the life of men and of nations. There are causes and 
conditions which make nations great and strong; 
and there are conditions and causes which weaken 
and destroy nations. What are the causes which 
have destroyed nations in the past? 

This question is not easy to answer for the reason 
that the records are incomplete. Many nations have 
perished, leaving only a name and a memory. Of 
some of these nations and peoples we have no writ- 
ten record ; all that remains are a few fragments like 
the fossils of some long-perished mastodon. In such 
cases we can only guess at their history and specu- 
late concerning their fate. But in some instances 
the records are clear and authentic, and we can 
watch the process from its happy beginning to its 
fateful end. Then too, in a book we call the Scrip- 
tures we have the outlines of a philosophy of his- 
tory, the divine interpretation of man's life, and the 



24 If America Fail 

prophetic interpretation of a nation's history. In 
the light of this book we learn to study the lives of 
men and nations from the inner and divine point of 
view; we are taken behind the scenes, and see the 
causes that are working out the weal or the woe of 
men and nations. This suggests the method of our 
inquiry here: We shall first notice some of the 
causes which have produced th^ decay and death of 
nations ; and then we shall read the inner meaning 
of these causes in the light of prophetic Scriptures. 

I. The Destruction of the Soil 

Two chief factors enter into the life of a nation 
and are the foundations of its strength — land and 
people. Under the one we include soil, climate, food, 
and healthfulness. By the other we imply such 
things as race, characteristics, morality, and religion. 
If either of these elements deteriorates, the nation 
sags and falls like a house whose foundations have 
broken. The two sets of causes are usually found to- 
gether, and it may not always be possible to say 
which is antecedent and which is consequent. In 
this section we mark that process which has resulted 
so often in the destruction of the soil and the decay 
of the people. 

The first step is land monopoly and absentee land- 
lordism. In the course of time a people makes a 
place for itself and becomes a power in the world. 
It gains possession of a definite territory and de- 
velops its resources. It creates a distinct type of 
national life and compacts its form of government. 
By a natural process there grows up around the 
ruler and his government a powerful and dominant 
class whose voice is always heard and whose inter- 



The Causes of National Decline 25 

ests are always considered. In time there arise cer- 
tain orders of nobility based on one ground or 
another, either blood, or favoritism, or ability. By 
one means and another these come into possession of 
much of the land and control the resources of the 
earth. That these nobles may possess wealth and 
live in a style befitting their station, the people must 
labor hard and pay heavy taxes. Gradually great 
estates are formed, and the small proprietor is re- 
duced to a mere tenant. The owners of these great 
estates leave the country and the towns of the em- 
pire, and concentrate in one or two of the great and 
luxurious cities. Their estates are managed by 
agents having no real interest in the people, and 
these agents make it their business to raise taxes 
and so please their masters. The landowners, driven 
by the love of pleasure and the need of money, think 
only of the present hour and ignore the future ; and 
so they urge their agents to demand heavier rents 
and thus wring the last farthing out of the people. 
Like the horse-leech, they demand of their agents 
more and ever more. And thus society breaks up 
into two great classes; the few nobles and agents 
who own the land, control trade, and tax the people 
according to their own pleasure ; and the great mass 
of the people, overworked, overdriven, without pos- 
sessions, and without hope. 

This process works havoc among all classes of 
people. False standards of life confuse men and 
give them a wrong estimate of values. The wealth 
and culture of the nation drift into the cities to add 
to the luxury and gaiety of the capital. Men are 
dazzled by the glitter of gold, and they lose all sense 
of value in life. Those who are rich are mad to 



26 If America Fail 

grow richer. Those who are poor imitate the rich 
and live beyond their incomes. Honest work and 
manual labor are despised, and men invent all kinds 
of ways to make a living. By and by the free and 
independent farmers disappear — the old, vigorous 
native population, the bone and sinew of the na- 
tion — and servile and dependent serfs take their 
places, serfs bound fast to the soil and toiling only 
to enrich the absentee landowners. The serfs lose 
interest in things, and like their masters they live 
only for themselves and for the present hour. The 
soil is impoverished and neglected and yields less 
and ever less to its cultivators. The forests are cut 
off, and the fertile top-soil is washed away. Irriga- 
tion is neglected. The soil is worked out, and no ef- 
fort is made to restore it. Private enterprise con- 
siders only its own interests and cares nothing for 
the public welfare. 

The monopoly of land leads invariably to dete- 
rioration of the soil. The story is worn threadbare 
in history. In Rome it runs as follows : Through the 
growth of great estates there came the rise of a 
large tenant class; the soil was overworked and its 
fertility destroyed ; as the philosopher Pliny laments, 
Latifundia perdidere Italiam, ** The great estates 
ruined Italy." In the Roman Empire eleven men 
owned the province of Africa and taxed the people 
at their pleasure. Soil exhaustion followed, and 
Africa fell into decadence. In old Egypt the land 
fell into the hands of a ruling class. The annual 
overflow of the Nile prevented the exhaustion of the 
soil ; but land monopoly destroyed the rural popula- 
tion. In ancient Persia, at the time of its greatest 
prosperity, two per cent, of the population owned 



The Causes of National Decline 27 

practically all of the land; this was the beginning 
of the end. From many lands comes the same mo- 
notonous story, from vanished empires of the past, 
from old Peru, from medieval Spain, from France 
before the Revolution, from Mexico and China. 

In the early days of the Roman Empire a four- 
acre plot was deemed enough to support a family. 
But in the time of the Gracchi, so rapid had been 
the deterioration, the family allotments were twenty 
acres. In the time of the Caesars this had been in- 
creased to forty acres. With this decrease in the 
fertility of the soil and the growth of great estates, 
came the decline of the Latin yeoman who had once 
been the strength of the Empire. Italy was obliged 
to import food from the provinces; and soon the 
shadow of soil exhaustion fell upon them also. In 
Greece the same process is observed with the same 
results. In the time of her greatness, Greece was a 
fertile, well-wooded, healthful, and populous coun- 
try. Two centuries later, at the time of the Roman 
conquest, the country was poor and sparsely popu- 
lated. The land that had once sent thousands of 
vigorous soldiers to defend Hellas at Thermopylae 
and at Platsea, could hardly provide more than three 
thousand men. The mountains were denuded, and 
the valleys were ravaged by malaria. In the sum- 
mer when the plains were parched, the cattle were 
driven into the mountains, where they browsed and 
trampled down the seedlings. The hills were washed 
bare ; swamps formed, malaria weakened the people, 
and whole districts became depopulated. 

In many other lands the same tragic process is 
seen. Thus we read : ^ 

1 Marsh, in " Man and Nature," quoted by Ross. 



28 If America Fail 

There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of 
Greece, and even of Alpine Europe, where the operation of 
causes set in action by man has brought the face of the earth 
to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon. And 
though within that brief space of time men call the " his- 
torical period " they are known to have been covered with 
luxuriant woods, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows, they 
are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimable by man. Nor 
can they become again fitted for human use except through 
great geological changes or some other mysterious influences 
or agencies of which we have no present knowledge or over 
which we have no prospective control. 

In China this same process is going forward with 
the same disastrous results. 

There is no mystery about the decline and fall of 
nations. 

Students of history have mentioned various causes of na- 
tional decay. Devastating wars, unjust laws, low morals, de- 
population following a low birth-rate or intense emigration — 
all these factors which are cited to explain decadence, are 
but passing causes. So long as the fertility of the soil is 
not destroyed, prosperity can rapidly return; and the in- 
stances of these fluctuations in the greatness of peoples are 
not rare in history.^ 

The one chief cause of decadence is the failure to 
practise conservation; in other words, the destruc- 
tion of the soil; when agriculture is neglected, and 
the soil deteriorates, the decline has begun. 

Go to the ruins of the ancient and rich civilization of Asia 
Minor, Northern Africa, or elsewhere. It is but the story of 
an abandoned farm on a gigantic scale.^ 

We know now, that quite in its day's work, a people may 
so dissipate or use up its resources as to leave the land 

"^ Felix Regnault, quoted by Ely in " The Foundations of National 
Prosperity," Appendix. 

» Simkhovitch, in " rolitical Science Quarterly," Sept., 1913. 



The Causes of National Decline 29 

scarcely habitable. Behind some of the great tragedies of 
history we are just beginning to glimpse soil exhaustion.* 

We begin now to understand what Liebig meant 
when he said that the decline of soil fertility was 
the fundamental cause of the decadence of nations. 
The poet is right : 

111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 

This brings us to the next condition : 

II. The Blight of Luxury 

Prosperity leads to luxury, and luxury always 
means disaster. The history of Israel is a standing 
commentary on this old truth. The people could 
not stand prosperity. As soon as they had plenty 
to eat they forgot God. Across the desert hunger 
and stern dealing were God's way of keeping the 
people manageable. After the people entered Ca- 
naan the same story is repeated with monotonous 
reiteration. When they had eaten and were full, 
they forgot God. " They did evil in the sight of the 
Lord, and served Baal." Then came the Philistines 
and invaded the land. In the people's extremity 
they cried unto the Lord, and a deliverer was sent. 
As soon as the enemy was well out of the land and 
prosperity restored, the people again forgot God. 
Then came the Moabites and enslaved them. They 
repented, and deliverance came. Again they did 
evil. Sisera enslaved them, and Deborah and Barak 
brought deliverance. "Again they did evil in the 
sight of the Lord." And so it was for hundreds of 

* Ross, *' Social Decadence," in " American Journal of Sociology," 
March, 1918. 



30 If America Fail 

years all through their fateful history. They could 
not stand prosperity. 

The same lesson is illustrated in the history of 
many other nations. Ease and luxury are always 
corrupting. The army of Hannibal was invincible 
so long as stern discipline was maintained and plain 
living was the rule. But one winter in the rich and 
luxurious city of Capua rotted the fiber of the army 
and brought defeat. Luxury destroyed the army 
that the might of Rome could not crush. Cyrus the 
Great, after he had conquered the Lydians, had much 
difficulty in keeping them in order. At one time he 
was tempted to reduce the entire people to a condi- 
tion of slavery. But Croesus advised him to try a 
different plan, to introduce among them music, rich 
dress, and high living. This was done, and the re- 
sults were just what Croesus foresaw. 

There is another aspect of this question which we 
may notice. The growth of luxury always leads to 
social vices which rot the moral fiber of a nation and 
cause national decay. For one thing the blight of 
luxury is felt earliest and most fatally in the home. 
In the early history of Rome the family life was 
held in high honor, the marriage bond was respected, 
and for five centuries divorce was unknown in the 
Roman world. But the time came when all this was 
changed. Under the Empire marriage came to be 
regarded with disfavor and disdain. Women, as 
Seneca says, married in order that they might be 
divorced ; and were divorced in order that they might 
marry. There were noble Roman matrons, he tells 
us, who counted the years not by the consuls but by 
the number of their husbands. As might be ex- 
pected, to have a family was regarded as a misfor- 



The Causes of National Decline 31 

tune, and all kinds of methods were used to prevent 
the birth of children. The rich and aristocratic, in- 
tent only on their own pleasure and gratification, 
chafed under the restraints of marriage and grew 
reluctant to rear children. The poor and servile 
classes, imitating their superiors, became unwilling 
to marry and found a family. This suggests the 
next cause :. 

III. The Decline of the Superior 

The time was when men divided the race into two 
great classes, the superior, made up of the cultured 
and the prosperous, and the inferior, made up of the 
uncultured and the slow-witted. It has been as- 
sumed that these two classes possessed very differ- 
ent powers and capacities, that the so-called supe- 
rior were made of finer clay than these so-called 
inferior persons. The anthropologist and sociologist 
of our time no longer accept any such classification 
as this. In fact the scientist seriously maintains 
that there is as much real capacity in one race as in 
another. It is true that the characteristics of one 
may differ greatly from another ; but this is a ques- 
tion of aptitude and not of capacity. Further than 
this, the sociologist seriously maintains that capacity 
is practically the same in all classes of people ; that 
there is as much real capacity in what we call the 
submerged tenth, as in the emerged tenth. It is not 
a question of capacity but of opportunity. 

We believe in the value of man as man; we be- 
lieve also in what is called the democracy of birth 
and the essential equality of all men. But the fact 
remains that men do not possess the same traits and 
qualities ; and further, some qualities and character- 



32 If America Fail 

istics make for national progress and strength, while 
certain other qualities and strains make against na- 
tional progress and vigor. These qualities are not 
abstract or impersonal, but are always incarnated in 
persons. There are persons possessed of unusual 
forethought, great vigor of mind and body, with 
initiative and self-control. We shall not call those 
who do not possess these qualities infg:-ior classes 
and lesser breeds ; but we do say that these are su- 
perior qualities so far as the race is concerned ; and 
we do say that no people can be great, progressive, 
strong, enduring, unless it develops and contains a 
large number of persons possessing these qualities. 
A people rises or falls, it grows or declines, as the 
proportion of people possessing these qualities in- 
creases or decreases. We may illustrate this prin- 
ciple from the experience of Greece and Rome. 

In ancient Greece there was a time when the fam- 
ily was honored and men and women considered it 
an honor to raise children. Then Greece advanced 
to the front rank and rose to the highest greatness. 
But with prosperity came luxury, and with luxury 
came a love of pleasure and a softness of temper. 
In the patrician families the birth-rate declined, and 
the race was drained of its finest qualities. The 
same process is seen in Rome with hardly a change 
of terms. The greatness of old Rome was built upon 
the family; so long as the family remained intact 
and it was an honor to rear children, Rome ruled 
the world and was invincible. But as the family 
declined and patricians no longer were willing to 
bear the burden of children, the foundations of the 
Empire were undermined and the beginning of the 
end had come. 



The Causes of National Decline 33 

In vain did Greek philosophers construct in imagination 
ideal states where only the best members should have off- 
spring to be supported and reared by the public wisdom and 
at the public cost. In vain did Roman emperors bestow spe- 
cial privileges on fathers of three children or more. The 
duties and responsibilities of family life fell into disfavor 
among many of the best men and the ablest and most attrac- 
tive women. The stock deteriorated and the fruits of cen- 
turies of magnificent civilization were cast away.^ 

The conclusion is certain ; the decline of a nation is 
due in large part to the fact that the proportion of 
the people with certain necessary superior qualities 
decreased, and the proportion of people without 
these necessary survival qualities increased.® 

It is not possible here to consider all of the causes 
that have produced these changes and have brought 
a decline of the better strains. The time was when 
men explained it, or thought they had explained it, 
by saying that the stock ran out and the people 
died of old age. But these things are themselves 
results and do not touch the causes; in fact they 
are the very things to be explained. Today it has 
become very evident that the causes of these changes 
are largely economic and social. 

First, note the economic cause of race decline. 
In every nation, soon or late, as we have seen, there 
has arisen the problem of land monopoly. The land 
fell into the hands of a few; the soil was over- 
worked; the cost of living rose higher and higher; 
the people left the farms and crowded into the cities ; 
the social pressure became intense; the more pros- 
perous and luxurious classes were unwilling to bear 

' Whetham, " The Family and the Nation," p. 149. 

• Ross, " Social Decadence," in " American Journal of Sociology," 
March, 1918. 



34 If America Fail 

the trouble of raising children; the social pressure 
greatly reduced the birth-rate among the middle 
classes. As a consequence the less provident, the 
more shiftless classes, taking no thought for tomor- 
row, following impulse only, were the only people 
that produced many children. In this way the vigor 
and stamina of the nation were reduced, and a steady 
national decline began. That is to say, the economic 
pressure meant a proportionate decrease in the more 
vigorous, thoughtful, successful, and progressive 
stock, and a proportionate increase in the less provi- 
dent, less thoughtful, less self -controlled and success- 
ful people. 

The other cause is more social and personal. The 
prosperous and successful classes were unwilling to 
bear the burden and strain of a family, and so they 
ceased to have their proportion of children. In all 
times one fact appears with monotonous iteration: 
In the so-called upper classes, the nobility, the peo- 
ple of culture and ability, there has been a decline 
in the birth-rate and number of children. In this 
way there was a decrease in the number of forceful 
personalities, men of foresight and ability, men of 
self-control and self-reliance. 

This then is the result of it all : With the decreas- 
ing number of children in the more successful, more 
restrained classes, and the increasing number of 
children in less successful and more shiftless classes, 
there has followed a decline in the national strength 
and cohesion. However powerful a society may seem 
to be, it is doomed if it so organizes itself as to breed 
the wrong sort of people and to favor the survival 
of the least desirable at the expense of the more val- 
uable. Any society that does these things is a fail- 



The Causes of National Decline 35 

ure — a failure in the degree in which these results 
are attained. No people can prosper and grow and 
endure where the less vigorous and less successful 
outpropagate the more vigorous and more successful. 
Historians and sociologists have named many causes, 
poHtical and economic, to explain the decadence of 
nations. Slavery, civil war, foreign conquest, 
bloated armaments, lust of gold, loss of martial 
spirit, the decay of religion, the decline of the na- 
tional strength, these have all been summoned to ac- 
count for their fall. But beyond all, more insidious 
than all, more fatal than any, in large part the cause 
of all other causes, is a wrongly selected birth-rate 
leading to the proportionate decline of the more 
thrifty and stronger stock and the proportionate in- 
crease of the more thriftless and weaker strains. 

We may state the law of national progress or de- 
cline in the following terms : If from any cause there 
be a proportionate decrease in the number of people 
with marked qualities of thrift, vigor, initiative, and 
ability, and a proportionate increase of the people 
with the traits of shiftlessness and weakness, there 
follows an inevitable decline of the national life. If 
by economic and social conditions children be made 
too heavy a burden on the more desirable elements 
of the population, there is a danger that the thrifty 
and the far-seeing members of the community will 
postpone marriage, and when married restrict the 
number of their offspring. Thus while the weak and 
careless elements grow at an increasing rate, the 
good stocks of the people check their rate of growth 
or even diminish in number, and the selective de- 
terioration of the race is hastened in two ways.^ 

• Whetham, " The Family and the Nation,' p. 3. 



36 If America Fail 

IV. The Decay of Religion 

Civilization and culture cannot save any people 
from decay and death. Nay, these things by them- 
selves carry within themselves the seeds of decay 
and ruin. In devotion to the things that are near 
and material, men lose sight of the things that are 
great and eternal. In pursuit of money and plea- 
sure, they forget God and lose him out of their lives. 
The old Accadian empire that flourished in the very 
twilight of history, perished through the decay of 
religion. The great world empires of Egypt and 
Assyria passed away primarily owing to neglect of 
the higher life. And the same story is told con- 
cerning Greece and Rome. 

But — and this is one of the ironies of history — 
religion may make most show where it is most 
swiftly declining. When were the most magnificent 
temples built in Greece? Not in the early times 
when men worshiped the gods in sincerity and truth ; 
but in later times when philosophers ridiculed the 
gods and the people looked on with indifference. 
When were the most splendid temples built in Rome? 
Not in the days when rulers and peoples really wor- 
shiped the gods; but in the later degenerate times 
when religion had become a form and a ceremonial. 
The age of Solomon is usually called the Golden Age 
of Israel, and in some senses it was. But that age, 
as every one knows, marked the culmination of Is- 
rael's ancient glory and the beginning of tragic de- 
cline. The same is true in later Israel. In the days 
of Christ the great temple of Herod was in process 
of construction, and that building was one of the 
wonders of the world. But every reader of the New 



The Causes of National Decline 37 

Testament knows that it was an age marked by a 
deep decHne in rehgion and the death of the nation. 
In the cities of Europe, in the city of Rome itself, 
there are many splendid cathedrals which are the 
wonder and admiration of the world. To see these 
magnificent temples one might suppose that they 
were built when religion was pure and men were 
most devout. But as a matter of fact some of these 
cathedrals were erected by men who must be classed 
as the vilest of the vile and the most irreligious of 
the profane. 

The decay of its religion is the most tragic calam- 
ity that can befall a nation ; it is the beginning of 
the end in a nation's life. 

All this brings us to the very heart of the problem 
and shows us inner causes. We open the Christian 
Scriptures and view the deeds of men and nations in 
the light of their teaching. It is sin that destroys 
men and nations. Sin destroyed Sodom and Go- 
morrah, Egypt and Babylon, Assyria and Israel. 
Behind all other things, in part as an effect, in part 
as a cause, is the deep black sin of the people. The 
great prophets of Israel without " one hesitating 
utterance or deviating line," declare that the fail- 
ure and doom of nations were due to their iniquities 
and sins. 

What then is sin? What are the particular sins 
which destroyed those peoples? Usually, when we 
talk of sins, we think of unbelief in God and neglect 
of holy things; something wholly inward and per- 
sonal, a matter between God and man. This is true 
enough so far as it goes, but it does not tell half the 
story. Listen to the prophets of Israel as they show 
unto the house of Jacob their sins and declare unto 

D 



38 If America Fail 

Israel their iniquities. Apostasy, pride, idolatry, 
mammonism, greed, selfishness, the abuse of strong 
drink, impurity, land monopoly, oppression of the 
poor, cornering breadstuffs, graft, scamping the 
measure, perverting justice — these are the sins 
against which the prophets flame out and upon which 
they denounce an impending judgment. 

In outer manifestation the sins of Israel are what 
we call social sins. To those who see on the surface 
of things such evils are set down as economic condi- 
tions and political blunders, and some folks may 
complain that we are leaving the gospel and med- 
dling with political and economic questions. " These 
things — oppression of the poor, land monopoly, lax 
family life, luxury, grinding the face of the poor, 
class strife — why, these are what men call social 
problems ; they grow out of bad economic conditions ; 
they are due to mistaken policies ; they can be traced 
back to a defective industrial system; they could 
have been averted by a wise political policy; they 
could be cured by a better social order." But in their 
inner meaning, however, these flaws in Israel's life 
appear as great and deadly sins, as self-indulgence, 
arrogance, selfishness, unbelief in God, hatred of the 
light, blindness of soul, profanation of holy things. 
Bad politics grow out of bad morals. We have evil 
economic conditions because men are selfish and 
greedy. Beneath every economic and political prob- 
lem is a moral fault of the people. Deeper than any 
defects in the industrial system is the broken broth- 
erhood of man. These things sap the nation's 
strength, rot the national bond, cause civil strife, 
break up the people into warring classes, and bring 
on the final catastrophe. 



The Causes of National Decline 39 

The quality of the fruit shows the character of the 
tree. And the character of the tree determines the 
quality of the fruit. The decline of a nation's life 
shows a decay in a nation's heart. And the decay in 
the nation's heart causes the decline of the nation's 
power. In the last analysis, the people's political 
policy is the outcome of the people's faith. What a 
people are, their political policies will be. In the 
last analysis also, a people's morals have a great in- 
fluence upon their rulers and legislatures. In fact, 
the statesmen's systems and policies are what the 
people's conscience makes them. 

It may not always be easy to detect the relation 
between cause and effect; but results have causes 
and causes lead to results. Alfred Russell Wallace 
has shown that there is a direct relation between the 
number of cats in a country and the amount of 
clover-seed. William Tyndale, the reformer, de- 
clared that the pope-holy religion of his day was re- 
sponsible for many of the ills of the nation. Sir 
Thomas More tried to parry this, saying in jest that 
the building of Tenterden Steeple caused the rising 
of Goodwin Sands and the silting up of Sandwich 
Harbor. And Tyndale answered with the argument 
that the papal clergy hath " so crope into men's 
minds as to make them think of nothing but the 
building of great steeples like that of Tenterden," 
while the adjoining harbors were neglected; and 
that " the functions of commerce and patriotic en- 
ergy were in abeyance because of the exclusive ab- 
sorption in a fictitious religion in pope-holy works." ^ 
We are coming to see that there is a causal relation 
between false social ideals and land monopoly at one 

8 Fremantle, " The World as the Subject of Redemption," p. 188. 



40 If America Fail 

end, and soil exhaustion and national decay at the 
other. 

The verdict of history is unmistakable. Nations 
perish from causes that are within. Nations die be- 
cause of their unbelief, their oppression, their greed, 
their injustice. No nation ever died from causes 
that lay outside its borders. Every nation has died 
as its faith died. The people that has lost its religion 
has lost its life. No nation ever died of old age. 
Every nation thus far has died of a rotten heart. 
And the heart began to rot as the hands began to 
clutch gold. The loss of God and the love of gold, 
out of these two sources flow the evils that have 
ruined nations. Nations are not destroyed; they 
commit suicide. 



Ill 

THE POWER OF WEALTH 

It is a question often discussed whether nations like 
individuals have their periods of infancy, adoles- 
cence, and old age, followed by death. The nation is 
made up of individuals ; why then should it not re- 
capitulate the history of its members? According 
to this view the decline and fall of nations is all a 
matter of inevitable fate, possibly of divine decree, 
and man, marking the remorseless oncoming of the 
end, can do little to avert it. 

Of old we were warned to beware of false analogy, 
and this advice applies here. The individual is for 
one generation; the nation is for all generations. 
Each new generation ought to be wiser than the old ; 
hence the nation ought to grow better as the genera- 
tions pass. If therefore the nation declines and dies, 
the purpose of God is thwarted and the nation is 
self-destroyed. The study of history shows that na- 
tions make or mar their own destiny. It shows fur- 
ther that the things which destroy nations are hu- 
man and moral causes. Since this is so these causes 
may be known, and it is possible for the nation to 
diagnose its condition. In view of our knowledge of 
the past and the relation of cause and effect, we may 
say that the nation failing today sins with its eyes 
open and invites its own fate. 

This suggests a natural and inevitable question. 
What is the probable future of America? How far 

41 



42 If America Fail 

are the causes which destroyed nations in the past, 
at work in our nation today? Two principles — 
axioms they may be called — must be kept in mind. 
Men and nations reap as they have sown. Like 
causes produce like results. If the causes and condi- 
tions that destroyed nations in the past exist here, 
will they not produce the same consequences? It is 
impossible to consider all of the causes at work in 
our nation at this time; and it is not necessary to 
consider any one in detail ; but we may note several 
of these. 

In this chapter we are concerned with the influ- 
ence of mammon shown in the sway of monopoly and 
the growth of capitalism. 

I. The Passion for Material Things 

The first thing that impresses one is the rapid in- 
crease of wealth with the passion for material 
things. The men who settled this continent and laid 
the foundations of the institutions, were many of 
them men of ideas and ideals. They came here that 
they might be true to their convictions and might 
be free to worship God according to the dictates of 
their own consciences. They found themselves in 
the midst of a vast and virgin continent, and right 
resolutely they set themselves to the task of develop- 
ing its resources and making a new nation. They 
were men of unbounded energy and inventive skill, 
and these qualities were now enlisted in the great 
task of nation-making. The results, known to all 
the world, are the wonder and admiration of man- 
kind. Our people have developed this continent 
faster than any other people have done a like work 
in the whole tide of time. 



The Power of Wealth 43 

But here, as so often, the characteristic virtue is 
being perverted and exaggerated and is becoming 
the characteristic vice. Today we are in danger of 
becoming one of the most materiahstic people the 
world has ever known. We are forgetting the ideal 
things of life and are addressing ourselves to the 
task of money-getting. We have little time and less 
inclination to develop the finer graces of our na- 
tional character. The desire to get on in the world, 
the passion for fortune, is the ruling ambition of a 
large section of the people. " Our whole civiliza- 
tion," says Felix Adler, ** is infiltrated with the 
money-getting idea." The man who is rich wants to 
be richer; the man with one million dollars is more 
eager than ever to have two millions ; the one with a 
hundred millions is ready to compass sea and land 
to have two hundred millions. The man who is in 
moderate circumstances is struggling and agonizing 
to rise in the scale and become rich ; the man who is 
poor is discontented and envious. Men are rated by 
their bank-accounts. Success is read in terms of 
money income. Political platforms frankly appeal 
to material interests. Industry openly states that 
its motive is profits. 

The whole program of our modern civilization turns at 
last on a calculation of effects upon the accumulation of capi- 
tal. A program fit for a Christian civilization would turn 
rather upon its effects on the quality of men that civilization 
shall produce. We have our modern way of turning moral 
values upside down. We are making men the means of mak- 
ing capital; whereas capital is only tolerable when it is 
simply and solely the means of making men. It would be 
infinitely to the advantage of men if every dollar of wealth 
should be cleaned off the earth, provided we could have in its 
place industry and honesty and justice and love and faith, 



44 If America Fail 

rather than to be led much further into this devil's dance of 
capitalism.! 

And this, he reminds us, is not the familiar rant of 
the professional agitator nor the easy generalization 
of the huckster of vain sensations. Some years ago 
a noted scientist declared that the greatness of En- 
gland was due beyond all other causes to the abun- 
dance and the cheapness of her coal. " If it be so," 
said Ruskin, " then ashes to ashes be her epitaph, 
and the sooner the better." Some years ago at a 
political gathering, a noted speaker declared, " No 
issue ever gets above the bread-and-butter issue " ; 
and the people applauded. 

Things are in the saddle in this land, and money 
is the chief good. Human values receive scant con- 
sideration where trade profits are concerned. For 
the sake of profits men are rated as labor units and 
are treated as a mere means to an end. For the sake 
of money men build unsanitary tenements where 
people sicken and die. For the sake of money they 
rent houses for evil purposes, corrupt city govern- 
ment, and bribe city aldermen. For the sake of divi- 
dends they form monopolies and adulterate bread- 
stuffs, overwork women and rob children of their 
childhood, grind up lives in great factories and make 
merchandise out of women's honor. Any industrial 
inhumanity is pardoned if only it is done in the name 
of big business. 

More than that — for the sake of dividends men 
resist every bit of remedial legislation. Every piece 
of legislation designed to make machinery safe, to 
abolish unsanitary tenements, to limit the hours of 

lA. W. Small, "The Outlook," June 17, 1S99. 



The Power of Wealth 45 

labor for women, to protect children against the 
merciless greed of industry, has been delayed for 
years and has been wrung out of unwilling legisla- 
tures. Again and again one hears it said that hu- 
man life is the cheapest thing in our American cities. 
What are human lives when dividends are at stake? 
Well may Dean Hodges say that " Genius stands in 
the market-place, and the soul is for sale." In very 
truth the horror of the Apocalypse is realized in 
these modern cities that deal in all kinds of " mer- 
chandise of gold, and silver, . . and fine flour, and 
wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, and char- 
iots, and bodies, and souls of men " (Rev. 18 : 
12, 13). 

II. The Concentration of Wealth 

The concentration of wealth creates a serious 
problem in the Republic. It is not necessary to dis- 
cuss the causes which have produced this condition. 
But several of them, as we have seen, are found in 
the love of power and the craving for distinction. 
These impulses are as strong here as elsewhere ; and 
so the causes of excessive wealth are present and 
active. All that these causes need is the occasion 
and opportunity, and monopoly and concentration 
are sure to follow. In many countries these causes 
have led to monopoly of land with concentration of 
wealth in the hands of the nobility. In our land 
they are leading to a monopoly of trade and indus- 
try. But here as elsewhere they result in the con- 
centration of wealth in a few hands. These two 
things, monopoly of resources and concentration of 
wealth, are very clearly related and must be consid- 
ered together. 



46 If America Fail 

In every nation of the past, as we have seen, with 
prosperity came wealth and luxury ; and with wealth 
there has always followed monopoly. By a process 
of exploitation, usually with the aid of government, 
the nobility gained possession of the land and ef- 
fected a virtual control. The people living on the 
land were reduced to practical serfdom, sometimes 
bound to the soil but always taxed at an extortionate 
rate. We have seen in an earlier chapter how com- 
plete was the monopoly of land in the Roman Em- 
pire; and we have also seen what were the results 
of that policy in the impoverishment of the people. 
An illustration or two from later history may be 
noted. 

In France before the Revolution the monopoly of 
land had been carried to the last extreme. As Car- 
lyle says, *' When a peasant raised two blades of 
grass a noble claimed one of them." The few lived 
in luxury and ease as landlords, while the many land- 
less peasants toiled in poverty and hunger. The 
nobility and the Church together owned practically 
all of the best available land in the Empire. Accord- 
ing to Taine,2 

If we deduct the public lands, the privileged class owned 
one-half of the kingdom, which was at the same time the 
richest, for it comprised almost all the large and handsome 
buildings, the palaces, castles, convents, and cathedrals, and 
almost all the valuable movable property such as furniture, 
plate, and objects of art, the accumulated masterpieces of 
centuries. 

Thus the privileged class, which was one per cent, 
of the population, before the Revolution, held one- 

- " Ancient R6gime," Book I, Chap. II. 



The Power of Wealth 47 

half of the land and all the most valuable improve- 
ments. No wonder the people lost heart and no 
longer cultivated the soil. Many of them, driven 
off the farms, wandered into the cities to hunger 
and beg. Agriculture was neglected, the productive 
power of the soil was reduced, and thousands of the 
people were poorly fed and undernourished. To 
add to their income, the wealthy classes created mo- 
nopolies of all kinds, and these further increased 
the prices of foodstuffs. The mass of the people 
lost interest in life, the birthrate declined, the nation 
lost cohesion and strength and soon began to crum- 
ble. This monopoly, as history shows, was one of 
the main causes of the French Revolution. That 
Revolution, with all of its attendant wrongs, was 
the effort of men to change the situation and restore 
to the people their rights. 

In modern times and in many countries, the 
process of land monopoly has proceeded at a rapid 
rate. In Prussia the Junkers own much of the land 
and a purely feudal system prevails. But even here 
the evils of monopoly are recognized, and the Ger- 
man government, even before the war, was break- 
ing up the great estates and providing for their 
division into small farms. It is said that fully three- 
fourths of the agricultural land of the nation is now 
in small holdings. In Britain we have one of the 
worst illustrations of land monopoly. According to 
the Doomsday Book of 1873, the last authoritative 
land census, the total area of the United Kingdom 
was 77,000,000 acres. Of this amount 40,520,000 
acres were held in 2500 estates. In England and 
Wales 34,500,000 acres, or eighty-five per cent, of 
the whole, are owned by 38,000 persons. In Scot- 



48 If America Fail 

land, seventy persons own one-half of the land. Of 
the 77,000,000 acres of the United Kingdom, over 
52,000,000 acres belong to persons whose average 
holdings exceed 1000 acres each. 

In the United States monopoly of land has not 
gone so far as in some other nations ; but the situa- 
tion here is serious. Already individuals and cor- 
porations hold millions of acres of the best timber-, 
coal-, oil-, mineral, agricultural, and grazing-lands. 
An investigation by the Bureau of Corporations in 
1914 reports that 

1,684 timber-owners hold in fee one-twentieth of the land 
area of the United States from the Canadian to the Mexican 
border. . . Sixteen holders own 47,800,000 acres, or nearly 
ten times the land area of New Jersey. . . In the upper Penin- 
sula of Michigan forty-five per cent, of the land is held 
mostly in fee, by thirty-two timber-owners. 

The report shows that at least one-half of the stand- 
ing timber of the United States is owned by less 
than two hundred holders. What is true of timber- 
lands is equally true of coal-, iron-, and oil-lands. 

In the monopoly of land itself the facts are most 
ominous. The public domain of the United States 
amounted originally to 1,850,000,000 acres. This 
was a vast empire in itself ; but much of it has been 
given away, 337,740,000 acres, in the form of sub- 
sidies to the railroads and other corporations. This 
alone amounts to one-sixth of the total area of the 
Republic. But private individuals and syndicates 
have gone much further than this. Various British 
speculators hold millions of acres in Florida, Missis- 
sippi, Texas, Kansas, and other States. One En- 
glish syndicate controls 2,000,000 acres in Missis- 
sippi. Fifty-four individuals and syndicates own 



The Power of Wealth 49 

26,710,000 acres, an area greater than seven of the 
more populous Eastern States, with a population 
of 8,359,000.^ According to the census returns of 
1900, it appears that 841,000,000 acres of land were 
under cultivation ; of this, 200,000,000 acres are in 
farms whose average size is 4,320 acres. These are 
owned by 47,276 persons. That is, one-fourth of 
the total agricultural acreage of the United States is 
owned by one-two-thousandth of the population. 

The one who studies conditions in our land is 
amazed at what he finds : not only a most dangerous 
monopoly of land, but a most immoral holding of 
that land out of cultivation for speculative purposes. 
In the western half of the United States millions of 
acres of good land are lying uncultivated and un- 
used, waiting for a speculative increase in price. 
In Arkansas, in Louisiana and Texas, in Nebraska 
and Colorado, in the Dakotas and Montana, and out 
on the coast, one sees the same thing — millions of 
acres lying idle. Government figures show that 
there are four hundred million acres of idle land in 
this country. Fully seventy-three per cent, of the 
arable land in the United States is idle ; and forty- 
five per cent, of the actually laid-out farm-land is 
uncultivated. Yet in our cities millions of people 
are kept away from the land and are crowded into 
unsanitary quarters, and in the World War the na- 
tion has faced a serious shortage of food and the 
people were urged to plow up lawns and to cultivate 
vacant lots. 

What are the causes of this anomolous condition ? 
Some of them are not far to seek or hard to find. 
** Three per cent, of the population own nearly all 

8 Howe, "The High Cost of Living," p. 205. 



50 If America Fail 

the land values in the United States." * And specu- 
lation in land values has forced the cost of farm land 
so high, that its cultivation does not pay. This is 
made very evident by the figures. Thus from 1900 
to 1910 the available acreage of the United States 
increased five per cent., and the number of farmers 
increased nearly eleven per cent. Yet the value of 
farm-land increased one hundred and eighteen per 
cent.^ Monopoly of natural resources and specula- 
tion in land values are keeping millions of acres out 
of cultivation and forcing people off the land. They 
are both decreasing the proportion of farm-owners 

*Nock, in the "Century Magazine," Dec, 1917. 

» Table Showing Changes in Faem Values and Farm-owners 

SoDECE : Census Summary of Agriculture, 1920. 

1920 mo 

January 1 April 15 

1. Number of farms 6,448,343 6,361,502 

2. Value of farm lands : 

Land and buildings, total . . .$66,316,002,602.00 $34,801,125,697.00 
Land and buildings, per 

farm 10,284.00 5,471.00 

Land and buildings, per acre 69.38 39.60 

3. All land in farms 955,883,715 878,798,325 

4. Average acreage per farm . . . 148.2 138.1 

5. Number of farm-owners 3,925,090 3,948,722 

Per cent, decrease 0.6 

Number of managers 68,449 58,104 

Per cent, increase 17.8 

Number of tenants 2,454,804 2,354,676 

Per cent, increase 4.3 

6. Total population 105,710,620 91,972,260 

Per cent, increase 14.9 

Urban population 54,304,603 42,166,120 

Per cent, increase 28.8 

Rural population 51,406,017 49,806,146 

Per cent, increase 3.2 

Country population 42,436,776 41,636,997 

Per cent, increase 1.9 



The Power of Wealth 51 

and increasing the proportion of tenant-farmers. 
No greater evil menaces the Republic than this ; no 
question demands more immediate and vigorous 
treatment. 

But other causes, more or less remote and sec- 
ondary, must be taken into account. It has been 
shown that the land policy of the Federal Govern- 
ment and of the various States has worked against 
the profitable settlement and development of unused 
lands. ^ The state has allowed private companies, 
sometimes land promoters and sometimes railroads, 
to publish misleading inducements to prospective 
settlers ; and as a result many settlers, disillusioned, 
have given up in despair and have sold their hold- 
ings to big landholders. Then much land is remote 
from railroads and cannot be profitably worked. 
Railroad building has advanced about as fast as 
could be expected under our present system. Many 
of the railroads are overcapitalized and cannot open 
new country. Many would-be settlers have had very 
small capital and have not been able to maintain 
themselves and develop their land, and many peo- 
ple, unable to purchase farm-land, have been kept 
from the land; and it has fallen into the hands of 
speculators. 

It is true that land monopoly has not been car- 
ried so far here as in some of the countries of the 
old world. Yet there are other forms of monopoly 
that are equally insidious and oppressive. One of 
the most remarkable phenomena of these later times 
is the upgrowth of commercial combinations which 
have gained practical possession of all the avenues 
of trade and commerce. Today in this land a few 

« " The Foundations of National Prosperity," Cliap. VI. 



52 If America Fa^ 

combinations control the food-supply of the people 
and determine the price of breadstuffs. They con- 
trol the iron and steel industry and fix the prices 
on all steel goods. They control the oil and coal 
trade and determine the cost to the consumer. 
And still other combinations control the means of 
transportation between the States and determine 
the flow of trade. And mark this, for it is impor- 
tant: The men who control the various industries 
are practically the same men who control the 
means of transportation. Every one knows that 
the prices of commodities in our land have little or 
no relation to the cost of producing them and plac- 
ing them on the market. The prices are fixed in the 
most arbitrary way by combinations in control of 
these commodities. These combinations have gained 
virtual control of the means of production and dis- 
tribution, and they are taxing the people as they 
please. 

This process of monopoly control has been car- 
ried as far perhaps in this nation as in any other 
nation in the world either past or present. The re- 
sources of the earth, the means of transportation, 
the strategic points of trade, the means of commu- 
nication, have been capitalized and exploited. The 
same thing is true with reference to telegraph and 
telephone rates, gas and electric light, express rates 
and water-power. The available coal in this country 
is in the control of a very few men. Eight impor- 
tant railway systems now exercise an absolute mo- 
nopoly over hard-coal mining. Together they own 
more than nine-tenths of the entire anthracite de- 
posits of Pennsylvania, and about three-fourths of 
the total production is mined by their subsidiary 



The Power of Wealth 53 

coal companies^ Several years ago Chauncey M. 
Depew said ; 

There are fifty men in New York City who can in twenty- 
four hours stop every wheel on our railroads, close every 
door of all our manufactories, lock every switch on every 
telegraph-line, and shut down every coal- and iron-mine in 
the United States. They can do so because they control the 
money this country produces. 

This is probably an exaggeration ; but the statement 
was made by one who was on the inside. 

It is certain that in this land the concentration of 
wealth has gone forward at a rapid pace. The ex- 
act figures for the country as a whole are not avail- 
able; but careful studies have been made in a few 
States. We take two States, Massachusetts and 
Wisconsin, and compare conditions here with those 
in Prussia, France, and Britain. (See tables, pp. 
54, 55.) 

Thus in the United States we find the same con- 
centration of wealth and inequality in distribution 
as in the Old World. It appears that in Massachu- 
setts 65 per cent, of the population own 4.5 per cent, 
of the wealth; in Wisconsin the same 65 per cent, 
of population hold 5.2 per cent, of the total. That 
is, the poorest two-thirds of the population in the 
two States own but five or six per cent, of the wealth. 
The poorest four-fifths of the population own 
scarcely 10 per cent. ; yet the richest 2 per cent, own 
57 per cent, of the wealth in Wisconsin and 58.8 per 
cent, in Massachusetts. We have come to this : that 
1 per cent, of the people receive 50 per cent, of the 
total income, and 2 per cent, of the population con- 
trol about 60 per cent, of the property. 

' " Conference of Governors," 1908, p. 48. 
E 



54 



If America Fail 



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The Power of Wealth 



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Money Value 
of Estate 

Compared to 

Wisconsin, 

1900, as a 

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85,500 

181,610 

135,715 


Percentage 

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Owned by 

Class 


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Prussia, 1908 
France, 1909 
United Kingdom, 1909 
Wisconsin, 1900 


Prussia, 1908 
France, 1909 
United Kingdom, 1909 
Wisconsin, 1900 


Prussia, 1908 
France, 1909 
United Kingdom, 1909 
Wisconsin, 1900 


Prussia, 1908 
France, 1909 
United Kingdom, 1909 
Wisconsin, 1900 


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In Prussia and England this monopoly of land and 
concentration of wealth are due in the main to in- 
heritance laws. In this country they are due to in- 
heritance laws and corporate capitalism. The same 
conditions are growing here as obtain in Prussia 
and England. And we may be sure that such con- 
ditions will produce the same baleful results as in 
the Old World. We are fast approaching the condi- 
tions of France before the Revolution, where the 



56 If America Fail 

privileged class owned one-half of the Empire. We 
have here a concentration of wealth about equal to 
that of present-day Prussia. If these things are an 
evil in Europe, are they any better in America? 

It is not necessary to discuss in detail the basis 
of these inequalities in wealth ; but in the main, large 
fortunes are due to monopoly control or special privi- 
lege. History tells the story of land exploitation in 
Europe and Asia — one of the blackest pages in the 
record. The fact that a few families of the nobility 
possessed much of the land, was due to no special 
merit or effort on their part. We knew how auto- 
crats have parceled out the land and how special 
privileges have made a few very rich. In the United 
States we have a different kind of system, but the 
results are about the same. Some years ago a list 
of over 4,000 millionaires was published, and the 
foundation of their fortunes was shown. Of this 
number 468 were made rich by real-estate holdings ; 
981, by ownership of natural resources, as mines, 
forests, etc. ; 386, by natural monopolies, railroads, 
telegraph, express, etc.; 203, by banks and control 
of money; 2,141, by competitive industry aided by 
monopoly or investments; 354, in purely competi- 
tive business, though some of these were aided by 
railroad and tariff rebates. In all cases the con- 
stant element which gives the advantage is the con- 
trol of some things the people need and the power 
to fix prices for them. These great fortunes, with 
few exceptions, were not made by service rendered 
or work done. They were rather won by special 
privilege and monopoly control, and represent an 
unearned increment. In the language of sociology 
they are " findings " and not " earnings." The lat- 



The Power of Wealth 57 

ter are fair and legitimate, the former are ques- 
tionable and unfair. Thus far society has not 
clearly distinguished between the two; but this dis- 
tinction must now be emphasized. 

In times past there have been political kings who 
gained control of the machinery of government and 
exploited the peoples at their own pleasure. They 
overrode all rights of the people and caused untold 
misery to millions of their fellows. Such men were 
Nero of Rome, Louis Fifteenth of France, Nicholas 
of Russia, and Leopold of Belgium. But in these 
latter times our industrial kings have been guilty of 
a tyranny quite as subtle and a wrong fully as deep 
as any of these older kings. They have monopolized 
the earth's resources, exploited the people's necessi- 
ties, made the family's rent dear and the child's loaf 
small. In fact, they have mortgaged the hopes of 
the nation and jeopardized the future of America. 
This fully justifies the word of Supreme Justice 
Harlan that " great and rapidly increasing corporate 
wealth is the supreme peril of the United States." 
Monopoly was one of the things that killed old Persia 
and Egypt and caused the downfall of Israel and 
Rome. " Liberty and monopoly," said Aristotle, 
" cannot live together." We must destroy monopoly, 
or monopoly will destroy America. Urging Parlia- 
ment to reform of abuses, Cromwell wrote," ** If 
there be any one that makes many poor to make a 
few rich, that suits not a commonwealth." 

III. The System of Corporate Capitalism 

In all the generations of the past, before the In- 
dustrial Revolution, we find hand manufacture and 

» Letter cxi. 



58 If America Fail 

small-scale industry. But with the creation of the 
steam-engine and the invention of machinery, a 
great change comes over the world. Now we have 
large-scale industry, that is, industry representing 
a great investment and employing many workers. 
Sometimes we have an individual owner, but usually 
the capital belongs to several men. These owners 
and capitalists are able to make large profits from 
the labors of others and thus greatly increase their 
own wealth. This system, as any one can see, read- 
ily led to the exploitation of labor, that is, the domi- 
nance of one man by another. This was serious 
enough, but in recent years we have carried this sys- 
tem very much further and have developed and in- 
corporated capitalism. 

Here we have an association of individuals known 
as stockholders who are empowered by their charter 
to elect a board of directors and through this act in 
the conduct of specified business. These owners lose 
their personal identity in the corporation or the en- 
terprise. They have no personal ownership in the 
enterprise, but hold certificates in the form of 
stocks and bonds. 

Note the meaning of all this. In creating this in- 
corporate capital, we have created an impersonal 
power and privilege, which can be held by a few and 
can be transferred from one to another. The cor- 
poration itself holds the control of an industry, a 
franchise, a special privilege, or a natural resource ; 
and it holds this control in the form of stocks and 
bonds. These can be bought and sold like any other 
commodity and can be transferred from parents to 
children. These stocks, it may be noted, are claims 
upon the industry and entitle the holder to a share 



The Power of Wealth 59 

in the proceeds. How large a proportion of these 
profits are what may be called fair interest and so 
fair earnings, and how large a proportion are what 
may be called speculative profits and monopoly 
gains, we cannot here discuss. 

According to the United States Census the profits in manu- 
facturing industry in the year 1909 were about 12 per cent., 
after due allowance is made for interest, insurance, taxes, 
and other fixed charges on the total capital employed. In 
other words, the capitalist class received in addition to the 
interest, in manufacturing industry, in 1909, about 12 per 
cent, of profits.!'^ 

We have no means of knowing the amount received 
in the form of interest and profits from other forms 
of corporate capital, such as railroads, public ser- 
vice corporations, and other privileges, but probably 
the profits in addition to the interest were fully 12 
per cent. How many persons are stockholders in 
these various corporations, we have no means of 
knowing. Every thing indicates that a consider- 
able proportion of the people, say five per cent., own 
some amount of stock. But the fact is however, 
that a very few persons, certainly not more than 
one-half of one per cent, of the population, own or 
control, the bulk of this capital, probably one-half. 
Figures show that ten principal stockholders in the 
New York Central Railroad received 28 per cent, of 
the dividends; and there is no reason to suppose 
that this is an exceptional case." 

It has become possible for a few people holding 
stock in a corporation to draw a large income with- 
out performing any function in society, or render- 

" Ellwood, " The Social Problem," p. 157. 

" Frank J. Warner, In " Public Ledger," August 28, 1916. 



60 If America Fail 

ing any equivalent. This claim of an income has 
become a hereditary privilege that carries no re- 
sponsibility and demands no effort. And this sim- 
ply means a capitalistic nobility based wholly upon 
a privilege which they hold. These privileged peo- 
ple, through their control of a large share of the 
capital of the country, are able to have an undue in- 
fluence upon government and can affect for good or 
ill the life and welfare of every person in the land. 
In the United States, corporations have been guilty 
of buying legislatures, corrupting judges, bribing 
juries, entering into agreement with political par- 
ties, insuring them certain privileges in return for 
campaign contributions — in fact, of every sin in the 
political calendar. It is owing largely to them that 
the tone, not only of business, but of political moral- 
ity, is so much below the standards of private life.^^ 
Armed with title-deeds to natural resources and 
industrial machinery these holders of corporate capi- 
tal are able to dictate terms to the remainder of the 
nation. Surplus capital seeks profitable investments. 
Corporate capital controls many natural resources. 
Practically all of the anthracite coal-lands are held 
by a few corporations. These work such districts 
as suit their purpose. But they hold millions of 
other acres out of use. By so doing, they are able 
to control prices of coal mined ; and are able to hold 
other lands for speculative purposes. Millions of 
acres of forest-land are held in the same way; and 
millions of acres of farm-land, some of it irrigable, 
is held from settlers in the same way. The same 
thing applies to water-power, oil-lands, iron depos- 
its, and mineral rights. This enables a few people, 

** Seager, " Triuciples of Ecouomics," p. 163. 



The Power of Wealth 61 

the holders of stocks and bonds, to keep up prices 
and to levy a tax upon the people's life. And it en- 
ables a few persons to exercise a virtual control 
over the development of a nation and the use of its 
resources. 

Thus arises a condition containing the possibili- 
ties of immeasurable evil, with effects quite as 
marked at one end of the social scale as at the other. 
The existence in society of a group or class that 
draws large incomes yet does no creative work and 
carries no direct responsibility, is a danger to so- 
ciety and to the people themselves. Such a class — 
all history shows — degenerates physically and mor- 
ally. Such a capital-holding class in America is as 
dangerous as a rich hereditary nobility in old Rome 
or medieval France. The existence of a class or 
group at the other end of society that does the dis- 
agreeable work, and yet draws a small income and 
lives a meager life, is even more of a menace to the 
nation. Such extremes in social condition, such re- 
sults in human lives, are a direct denial of democ- 
racy, equality, and brotherhood. The situation 
means social friction and strife. The men who have 
created the condition are themselves becoming 
alarmed and are questioning whether they have not 
created a Frankenstein that may destroy its makers. 
Men are beginning to see that this perfected organi- 
zation of corporate capitalism and property income 
which enables the few to draw large incomes without 
performing any real service in society is one of the 
most menacing facts in American life. The people 
who must pay the cost, toiling hard and yet receiv- 
ing inadequate wages, are beginning to feel the pres- 
sure and are growing restless and chafing under a 



62 If America Fail 

sense of injustice. One might well lose hope of 
human nature if men could be quiet and content in 
the face of such wrongs. The fact that the people 
are chafing and growing restless is a sign that hu- 
man nature is not wholly base and servile. 

The progressive nations of the world have denied 
the divine right of kings to control the people's life, 
to levy taxes at their will, and to surround them- 
selves with an income-drawing but idle nobility. 
Today we must deny the divine right of capital to 
control the people's life, to take a tax upon the peo- 
ple's labor, to draw large income without rendering 
equivalent service. 

The frank and open discussion of the questions 
stated here is one of the most necessary things just 
now. The time has gone by when we can hide the 
facts from the people or can put them off with 
roseate promises. Some time ago the editor of a re- 
ligious journal objected to a declaration of social 
principles put forth by a body of earnest and repre- 
sentative men on the ground that such declarations 
were calculated to awaken discontent among the peo- 
ple and might fan the flames of revolution. The 
good editor is very ignorant of the real situation, for 
the people are finding out the facts for themselves 
and cannot be deceived any longer. And he is wrong 
in supposing that ignorance is the best way of solv- 
ing a social problem. No thought is safe that would 
shut thought out. To cry, Peace, Peace, when there 
is no peace, is to prove oneself a faithless watchman. 



IV 

THE INCREASING SOCIAL PRESSURE 

The American experiment began under the most fa- 
vorable auspices. Here was an almost virgin conti- 
nent, with unlimited resources and scanty popula- 
tion. In the main, the men who settled North 
America were the picked men of the Old World. 
Those who came to the Massachusetts colonies, to 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to New York and 
Virginia, were largely religious refugees with a love 
of God and a passion for freedom. They came here 
with the memory of centuries of wrong behind them 
and with an uncharted future before them. Reso- 
lutely they set themselves the task of developing a 
continent and building up a nation under better aus- 
pices and upon Christian principles. 

The forefathers of the Republic have done great 
things of which history will gladly keep record. Un- 
fortunately there is a seamy side to the story, and 
this greatly lessens our jubilation. It was possible 
for us to profit by the experience of the Old World 
and to build our cities on new lines. The fathers 
should have known what were the causes that pro- 
duce social strife and bring the downfall of nations. 
Surely it was possible for us to build a more Chris- 
tian civilization and to avoid the pitfalls of history. 
But alas, we have built our civilization on the same 
old lines as those of Europe. We have allowed the 
same old evils to develop here; we have slums that 

63 



64 If America Fail 

are as dismal as anything in the Old World. We 
have built our cities without plan and method ; most 
of them are like Topsy and have " just growed." 
All of the elements which led to the decay and disso- 
lution of the Roman Empire are present in Western 
civilization and are constantly increasing. The in- 
crease of material wealth, the prevalence of luxury, 
the power of monopoly, have always resulted in the 
growth of social classes. The concentration of 
wealth, the rising cost of living, the increased social 
pressure, have always produced a proletariat land- 
less and discontented and tinder for revolution. 
Some aspects of this process will be discussed in the 
chapters that follow. In this chapter we note the 
causes that are at work bringing a decline of the 
superior stock and the growth of an industrial 
proletariat. 

I. The Decline of the Superior Stock 

Some years ago a measure was pending in the 
British Parliament that affected the lords of the 
realm and summoned them to Westminster to de- 
fend their ancient prerogatives. These men, the no- 
bility of England, the aristocracy of the Empire, are 
thus described by an eye-witness : " I have seen as- 
semblies that compared with it, but nowhere outside 
of jails, almshouses, or hospitals for the insane. No 
one could study the four hundred figures upon the 
plush benches without suffering almost a death-blow 
to his faith in human nature. It was not the feeble- 
ness of age that stood out; it was the senility of 
youth, the wreck of middle life, the tottering imbe- 
cility of dissipated years." " A composite photo- 
graph of the lords who hold their seats by inheri- 



The Increasing Social Pressure 65 



*& 



tance would be the personification of weakness, 
mental and moral, of physical indulgence, bigotry, 
and intolerance." Were it not for the constant in- 
flow of fresh blood from below, the nobility would 
soon pass. The nations of the past have begun to 
die at the top. It was so in Egypt, in Babylonia, in 
Greece, Rome, and Israel. And it may be so in En- 
gland and America. 

In America it is true we have no so-called nobility, 
hereditary or otherwise. But causes are at work 
here which are creating a class of social idlers able 
to live upon the toil of others and raised above the 
necessity of work. Our system of corporate capital- 
ism is making it possible for a man to hold and to 
transmit a hereditary ownership of capital and a 
claim of income. In practical results this lifts the 
person above the necessity of labor himself and 
makes him a member of an idle class. If present 
tendencies continue we shall soon have a class of 
such capital-holders, the equivalent of a hereditary 
privilege-holding nobility much larger than any au- 
tocracy or feudalism of the past and able to draw 
larger incomes. And all history shows that such a 
class always decays morally and physically; it de- 
clines in vigor and really becomes a national liability. 
In our land this rich class is of recent growth, and 
so far there has not been time for the full fruits to 
appear. But the story of high life, as it is called, in 
our cities, is leading to the same bitter mental, moral, 
and spiritual degeneracy. And there is another as- 
pect of this process which is no less fateful. 

In all times, with the growth of an idle class and 
the spread of luxury there has come an increase of 
social pressure. This has meant an increased cost 



66 If America Fail 

of living for the people ; and it has always been fol- 
lowed by a decline of the superior classes. Let it be 
understood throughout this discussion that no invid- 
ious comparisons between the superior and inferior 
people is intended. In thought here the people are 
not divided according to their riches and their pov- 
erty. We accept without qualification the principle 
of the sociologist, that capacity is practically the 
same among all people and classes. When we speak 
of the superior we mean the desirable and better. 
We refer to those qualities and characteristics that 
are most needed in the nation, that it may be strong 
and prosper and fulfil its mission. These qualities 
and traits are not found except in rare cases, in the 
rich and luxurious few at one extreme of the social 
scale, or in the poor and beaten many at the other 
end of the scale. They are rather the qualities of 
the great middle class that is the very life and 
strength of a nation. Let it be granted that in all 
classes there is about the same natural capacity ; in 
this sense there is no really inferior class. But let 
it be remembered that this capacity, though present 
in possibility, will not unfold in an unfavorable en- 
vironment. In this case there will be a large class 
of people who are undeveloped and so are inferior 
in physical power and mental ability. And this is 
precisely the condition that obtains in our land at 
this time. 

The industrial development of our time has drawn 
the people into the cities; it has raised the cost of 
living and has greatly increased the social pressure. 
First of all, from various causes the cost of living 
has risen in America out of all proportion to the 
rise in wages. According to figures of the United 



The Increasing Social Pressure 67 

States census the cost of living has increased fully 
fifty-four per cent, from 1896 to 1912. During the 
war the cost of living increased fully one hundred 
per cent, in America and much more than that in 
some European nations : since the war the cost has 
continued to rise in many lands, and the social pres- 
sure has increased. It is hardly likely that prices 
will remain permanently at the present level. But 
economists see no signs of any marked decrease ; in 
fact we are warned that prices will probably never 
revert to the old levels. In some industries wages 
have been increased from fifty to one hundred and 
fifty per cent. But according to official figures the 
wages of many workers are still very low; too low 
in fact to assure a majority what may be called a 
living wage. It may be noted that while there may 
be a marked increase in wages in some lines of in- 
dustry, salaries have remained nearly stationary in 
this time and have not increased proportionately. 
This means that the income of what may be called 
the great middle class, professional men and skilled 
workers, has not increased in proportion to the in- 
creased cost of living. And this means that there 
has been a marked increase in the social pressure; 
in a word, it is harder than ever before for the great 
middle class to maintain their footing in society and 
to make ends meet. The uncompensated increase in 
the cost of living, says W. L. Holt, means nothing 
less than the progressive impoverishment of the 
mass of the American people. This is the greatest 
possible injury that can befall the nation either in 
the present or in the future. 

That the present social condition is unsatisfac- 
tory, that there is economic pressure, is known to all. 



68 If America Fail 

That owing to the increased cost of living, due in 
part to a higher standard of wants and an increased 
cost of commodities, the struggle of life has become 
very keen, is confessed by all. That, as a result of 
this, the more prosperous and thoughtful people are 
delaying marriage, and if married are limiting the 
number of children, is patent to everybody. That, 
as the obverse of this process, there is an increase 
out of due proportion of the weaker and inferior peo- 
ple, is becoming very plain. 

In Western Europe and in America, owing in 
large part to social and economic conditions, socie- 
ties are not so organized as to recruit themselves 
from the superior elements of the population. In 
these lands no serious attempt has been made to pre- 
vent the degeneration of the people and to improve 
the human stock. On the contrary, all the condi- 
tions that have produced the decline and degenera- 
tion of the people are now at work here. In En- 
gland, in the upper and even in the middle classes, 
the birth-rate in a generation has sunk from four and 
a half children to the family, to about two to the fam- 
ily. In our land, among the native American stock, 
the number of children to a family has decreased in 
about the same proportion. Among college gradu- 
ates and professional men it has decreased faster 
than this. But there has been little if any decrease 
among the lower and poorer classes ; and the propor- 
tion of children of foreign-born parents is more than 
double the proportion among the native stocks. 
Thus society in America is recruiting itself from 
among the elements that are least necessary; one- 
quarter of the population, that quarter that is least 
American, produces one-half of the population. It 



The Increasing Social Pressure 69 

is evident that if this one-quarter possess inferior 
qualities, the nation must suffer. Gresham's law 
applies in nations as in economics — the inferior sup- 
plants the better. Nature recks little of our so- 
called superiorities; she approves only those who 
are able and willing to survive. 

We have learned that there is no such thing as 
social isolation, but the infection working in any 
class of people reaches across all imaginary lines 
and affects all classes. Today the wealthy classes 
set the pace and determine the standards of the peo- 
ple. The results are the same here as they were in 
Rome, Israel, and Egypt. The men in moderate cir- 
cumstances are confused by the false standards that 
exist and are trying to keep up appearances. Their 
families are anxious to move in good society and to 
preserve the semblance of wealth. The consequence 
is that a large proportion of the families in our land 
are living beyond what their income warrants. The 
family life suffers under such circumstances, and the 
home is neglected. Children are considered a bur- 
den, and in some circles they are under a ban. One 
child according to the approved maxim is desirable ; 
two is genteel ; three begins to be too many ; four is 
a crowd; five is a calamity, and all over six is a 
disaster. This infection at the top is working down 
throughout the whole body. 

That America already possesses an alarming pro- 
portion of lower-standard people is clearly evident. 
The World War has indeed been a day of judgment 
to men and nations and has brought many hidden 
defects to light. During the war when the entire 
life forces of the nation were enlisted and men had 
to be placed to the greatest advantage, it was found 

F 



70 



If America Fail 



necessary to measure the intellectual capacity of the 
soldiers that the government might know how to se- 
cure the largest results. So a system of tests was 
devised to measure the mental capacity or native 
ability of the men rather than mere knowledge or 
acquired information. The aim was to ascertain 
" the ability of men to learn to think quickly and ac- 
curately, to analyze a situation, to maintain a state 
of mental alertness, and to comprehend and follow 
instructions." The tests as applied to about one 
million seven hundred thousand enlisted men were 
of two kinds: the Alpha test for those who could 
read and write, and the Beta test for all others. 
Seven grades were recognized, as follows: A, very 
superior intelligence; B, superior; C+, high aver- 
age ; C, average ; C — , low average ; D, inferior ; D — 
and E, very inferior. These grades were then clas- 
sified according to their mental ages; and the 
following results appeared: 



Grade 


Mental Age 


Per Cent, of 
Whole 


A 


18-19 


4V2 


B 


16-17 


9 


c+ 


15 


161/2 


c 


13-14 


25 


c 


12 


20 


D 


11 


15 


D— 


10 


10 



The Increasing Social Pressure 71 

It may be assumed that these drafted men are 
fairly representative of the people as a whole. In 
that case some forty-five millions, or nearly one-half 
of the population, will never develop mental capacity 
beyond that stage represented by a normal twelve- 
year-old child.^ These facts are startling enough to 
jog the American people wide-awake. They show 
that conditions exist here which are reducing the 
mental capacity of the people and so are jeopardiz- 
ing the success of popular government. America 
was settled by the finest type of people the world 
has known. But causes have been at work which 
are reducing the number of highly endowed and are 
increasing the proportion of poorly endowed. 

Owing to the larger families of the unintelligent and to 
the great influx of foreigners of low mental capacity, our 
average intelligence has probably been declining for the past 
twenty-five years at least.^ 

Thus, many causes combine that are reducing the 
proportion of births among the people that have 
more ability and vigor, and are increasing the num- 
ber of births among the weaker and less progressive 
people. Thus Western civilization is tolerating a 
" reversal of selection " ; and such reversal of selec- 
tion has been an important factor in the collapse of 
previous civilizations. The American republic is 
deprived of the offspring of the class that possesses 
the most necessary qualities and traits, and is sup- 
plying their places with the offspring of low-grade 
foreigners and casual laborers. The effect is the 

1 Conklin : " The Direction of Human Education " ; p. 103. For de- 
tailed statement of methods and restilts see " Memoirs National Acad- 
emy of Sciences," Vol. XV. " Psychological Examining in the United 
States Army." 

^^ Conklin, "The Direction of Human Evolution," p. 104. 



72 If America Fail 

elimination of the strong, thrifty, and self-reliant 
middle class, and the survival of the less vital and 
less fit thriftless class. 

The result is, for it is actually taking place now, that the 
percentage of the inferior and unfit steadily increases, while 
that of the superior and fit, pari passu, diminishes; and if 
this process of degeneration is not checked, the nation as a 
whole -will become unfit and will succumb as most nations 
have done in history .^ 

The supremest task before a nation, the factor 
that decides its destiny, is that of getting the right 
kind of people born and the wrong kind not born. 
Where there is a reversal of selection and a decline 
of the superior, the doom of the nation is only a 
matter of time. Causes are at work which endanger 
the future of American democracy. 

II. The Growth of an Industrial Proletariat 

In old Rome, as we have seen, one of the condi- 
tions of decay and the causes of downfall, was the 
presence of a larger proletariat class. From one 
cause and another the people were driven from the 
land and drawn into the cities. There they crowded 
together, a great propertyless class, without certain 
employment, dependent in large part upon charity, 
exploited by the men of privilege, and flattered by 
every demagogue, at once a burden to themselves 
and a menace to the nation. In our Republic at this 
time we are creating such an industrial proletariat, 
and this bodes ill for our future. 

In an earlier chapter we noted as a result of the 
Industrial revolution the coming of large-scale pro- 

» W. U Holt, In " Popular Science Monthly," Dec, 1913. 



The Increasing Social Pressure 73 

duction and corporate control of industry. This 
has produced some significant results which may be 
noted here. First, large scale production means 
machine production. Millions of workers are ma- 
chine tenders ; and much of this work is mechanical, 
uninteresting, tedious, deadening. From this comes 
to pass the mechanizing of the workers and so their 
dehumanizing. Second, the cooperate control of in- 
dustry depersonalizes the relations of men. More 
and more the great industries have combined ; the in- 
dividual owner and employer is disappearing, and 
we have corporate management through overseers. 
Capital has given place to capitalism. This capital- 
ism, without heart or conscience, has become an end 
in itself with all other things as means. The old 
personal relation between employer and employee 
has almost wholly disappeared; and we have the 
manager of an impersonal corporation on the one 
side, and a number of " hands " on the other. The 
worker has lost ownership in the tools with which 
he works. More than that, the worker has lost a 
voice in the enterprise of which he is a part. Indus- 
try is conducted for the sake of dividends; the in- 
terests of society and the welfare of the workers 
are secondary. Such things, we are told, " do not 
appear in the balance-sheet." 

The workers have understood the meaning of the 
process, whether employers have or not, and by the 
creation of labor-unions have sought to maintain 
their footing and secure some recognition. But in 
recent years there has been a determined and united 
effort on the part of many managers and employers 
to break up labor-unions. In many large industries 
the managers have brought foreign laborers into va- 



74 If America Fail 

rious industries to displace American workers and 
union men. In many large industries the employers 
have devised the following methods to keep the men 
divided and prevent the formation of labor-unions : 
Whenever the unskilled men in any department 
reached the proportion of fifteen per cent, of all the 
men in that department, a number were discharged 
and men speaking other languages were engaged. 
This was done with the avowed purpose of making 
it difficult for the men to know each other, and so 
making it impossible for them to organize. Work- 
ingmen were discharged and " sent down the road " 
simply because they were becoming acquainted with 
their fellows. Men of diverse nationalities were 
thrown together and were manageable because they 
were strangers. In this way the labor-unions have 
been crushed out of many industries. Thus in 1901 
the United States Steel Corporation signed an agree- 
ment with two-thirds of their 125,000 workmen, a 
large proportion of whom were English-speaking 
men. Since 1911 the corporation has signed not a 
single agreement with the beaten and unorganized 
Slavic and Latin workers. One result of this policy 
is seen in race friction and labor troubles in many 
parts of the land. Another result is the rise of an 
industrial proletariat without any certain tenure of 
employment or any settled abode. And yet people 
are blaming the " ignorant foreigners " and " irre- 
sponsible agitators " for all of our labor troubles.* 

Not only so, but the steamship and railroad com- 
panies have done everything in their power to cre- 
ate an " American fever " among the Slavic and 

* Report of President's Mediation Commission in " Monthly Review 
of U. S. Bureau oi Labor Statistics," March, 1918. 



The Increasing Social Pressure 75 

Latin peoples of Southern and Eastern Europe, and 
to induce workers to come to America. Paid agents 
of these transportation companies by hundreds and 
thousands have been at work among these people 
painting alluring pictures of America as a land of 
gold and freedom, decoying the people, selling them 
through tickets, and practically mortgaging them 
to padrones in this country. Mark this, for it is sig- 
nificant : The directors of these transportation com- 
panies, by a system of interlocking directorates, are 
also directors and stockholders in many of these in- 
dustrial corporations. To increase dividends of 
transportation companies on the one hand, to break 
up labor-unions and beat down wages on the other, 
these men have created a forced immigration and 
overstocked the supply of workers. The men who 
have created these conditions, our coal and iron 
barons, our captains of industry, the directors of 
steamship companies, the exploiters of corporations, 
are the enemies of the Republic and should be so 
branded. In charity we may say of them as was 
said of the men of old who crucified the Divine 
King, " They know not what they do." But none the 
less they are guilty of murdering the hope of the 
nation and signing the doom of the people. Who is 
responsible for the explosion : the men in broadcloth 
who pile up the explosive in our cities, or the half- 
mad anarchist who throws the blazing firebrand into 
the heap? These industrial exploiters of today in 
the name of big business and large dividends are 
mortgaging the hope of the Republic as truly as 
Louis XIV., the Regent, and Louis XV., caused the 
French Revolution, and the nobles of old Rome 
caused the downfall of the Empire. 



76 If America Fail 

Another result is this: Home-owning is impos- 
sible to a large proportion of industrial workers to- 
day. Students of social conditions are agreed that 
employment is very uncertain and fluctuating ; there 
are few steady jobs paying a living wage; the pro- 
portion of men who are founding a home is con- 
stantly diminishing, and what may strictly be called 
a proletariat is steadily increasing. Employment 
is so uncertain that it is unwise for the worker to 
attempt to buy ground and build a home. To do 
that is simply to bind his hands and give hostages to 
the employer. Just as far as his labor is mobile and 
he is foot-loose can he preserve his fragments of 
self-respect. Marriage and home-owning are becom- 
ing increasingly difficult to millions of workers. So 
long as the present capitalistic system of corporate 
industries continues these unfortunate results will 
not only continue but they will intensify as the 
years go by. All signs indicate that the freehold 
homes of England and America, so numerous two 
generations ago, are giving place to tenements and 
slums ; and that the integrity of these homes is se- 
riously threatened.^ 

But quite as significant as the change going on in 
industrial cities is the decrease in home-owning 
among the farming population. According to gov- 
ernment figures farm tenancy grew from 25.5 per 
cent, to 37.9 in the years between 1880 and 1910. 
This means that in continental United States the 
number of farmowners decreased from 74.5 per cent, 
to 62.1." From 1910 to 1920 there was an actual de- 
crease of 0.6 per cent, in the number of farmowners, 

* Goodsell, " The Family as a Social and Educational Institution," 
p. 464. 

• Abstract, " Thirteenth Census," p. 286. 



The Increasing Social Pressure 77 

Vfhile farm managers increased 17.8 per cent, and 
farm tenants increased 4.3 per cent. This decrease 
in farm ownership and marked increase in farm ten- 
ancy are due to various causes; and these are not 
the same as are at work among industrial workers. 
One cause, no doubt, is the great rise in land values, 
which has made it difficult for people to save money 
with which to buy a farm. In part it is due to the 
fact that men with capital have bought up farm- 
land as an investment or for speculative purposes. 
But beyond these, other causes have cooperated 
to discourage the farmers and drive them from 
the land. Among them may be mentioned the 
control of transportation by the railroads which 
have favored certain sections and ruined others, the 
monopoly of grain-elevators and abattoirs to force 
down prices to the producers and to force up prices 
to the consumers, and the presence of many groups 
of speculators and middlemen who have made farm- 
ing unprofitable. Perhaps there is a growing dis- 
inclination on the part of succeeding generations to 
acquire land-ownership and cultivate the ground. 
No doubt many young people have left the farm in 
the hope of bettering their fortune in the city. But 
whatever the cause, the results are serious enough; 
they are seen in the decline of thousands of country 
churches, the sinking of moral standards in many 
rural communities, and the upgrowth of a poorer 
population, both in money and in moral values. Pro- 
fessor Carver is justified in the statement that ab- 
sentee landlordism is worse for a country than war, 
famine, and pestilence. If America loses its sturdy, 
intelligent, independent English-speaking people, 
owning their own homes and with a stake in the 



78 If America FaU 

nation, and sees the prevalence of a shifting, depen- 
dent, poor, landless, and tenant population of for- 
eign blood and different ideals, the future of the 
Republic is exceedingly doubtful. 

The proletariat of old Rome was in a large sense 
one of the chief causes of the downfall of the Em- 
pire. A hopeless lot, without joy in the present or 
hope for the future, they were dependent in large 
part upon charity, and were flattered by every dema- 
gogue. Exploited by men of privilege and kept quiet 
by bread and circuses, they were a discontented and 
turbulent folk, and furnished kindling-wood for a 
great conflagration. The emperors tried to keep 
them quiet by flattery and largesses ; sometimes they 
succeeded, and sometimes they did not. It is the 
simple truth to say that Rome was destroyed more 
by the disinherited and discontented within its own 
borders than by the barbarians who came from 
without. The empire, so many say, perished be- 
cause of the attack of the Huns and Vandals from 
the forests of Germany. But Rome could never 
have succumbed to attack from without if it had 
been strong within. It was the Huns and Vandals 
within her borders and of her own creation that 
opened the doors for the destroyers from without. 
The proletariat in old Rome was the enemy within 
the gates. These people without possessions, with- 
out home ties, had no stake in the Empire and cared 
little who was master, whether Roman or Goth. 

In America at this time we are fast creating such 
an industrial proletariat. Many thousands of men 
are engaged in purely seasonal work, with no settled 
employment and no real home life. They have little 
stake in the nation and little hope for the future. 



The Increasing Social Pressure 79 

They are smarting under a sense of injustice and 
feel that society has wronged them. They believe 
that the war was conducted in the interests of the 
capitalists and that the government is under the 
control of Wall Street. We may admit that they 
are wholly wrong in this belief ; but the belief itself 
is a fact that must be reckoned with. A wrong be- 
lief may be as potent as a right belief and far more 
dangerous. We may censure these men for their at- 
titude ; but be it remembered that our un-American 
conditions are largely responsible for this attitude. 
We may condemn the dangerous doctrines that are 
preached among these people; but dangerous seed 
grows only in prepared soil. There is only one ef- 
fective way of preventing the growth of dangerous 
seed, and that is to make the soil immune. There 
is only one way to make the soil thus immune ; and 
that is to secure justice to all, and have men believe 
that justice is done.'^ 

In this land we have created the same conditions 
that were found in old Rome, in France before the 
Revolution, and in Russia before the overturning. 
Thus causes are at work that justify Lord Macau- 
lay's prophecy : " As long as you have a boundless 
extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your laboring 
population will be found more at ease than the labor- 
ing population of the Old World ; but the time will 
come when wages will be as low and will fluctuate 
as much with you as with us. Then your institutions 
will be fairly brought to the test. Distress every- 
where makes the laborer mutinous and discontented 
and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators 

' See Report of President's Mediation Commission given in " Monthly 
Review of U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics," Marcti, 1918, No. 3. 



80 If America Fail 

who tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that 
one man should have a million and another cannot 
get a full meal. The day will come when in the 
State of New York a multitude of people, none of 
whom has had more than half a breakfast or expects 
to have more than half a dinner, will choose the leg- 
islature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of legis- 
lature will be chosen? There will be, I fear, spolia- 
tion. The spoliation will increase the distress; the 
distress will produce fresh spoliations. Either civ- 
ilization or liberty will perish. Either some Csesar 
or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with 
a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully 
plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twen- 
tieth century as the Roman Empire in the fifth, with 
this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who rav- 
aged the Roman Empire came from without, and 
that your Huns and Vandals will have been engen- 
dered within your country by your own institutions." 
President Garfield confessed that this letter of Ma- 
caulay's startled him like an alarm-bell at midnight. 
If things go on as they are we shall soon have a 
large mass of illiterate, industrialized serfs, a great, 
sodden proletariat without possessions and without 
hope, the material out of which revolutions are made, 
the powder for a vast explosion. 

We are traveling the road worn smooth by a hun- 
dred nations that have died. We are moving toward 
the scrap-pile of history, and are traveling that 
downward road faster than any nation the world 
has known. In the latter years of his life Daniel 
Webster made a tour through our Western country. 
When he returned he summed up his impression in 
four words — Struggle, Prosperity, Luxury, Desola- 



The Increasing Social Pressure 81 

Hon. These four words tell the story of many a 
great nation in the past that marred on the wheel 
and went to the rubbish-heap. " If present tenden- 
cies continue," said President W. H. P. Faunce, 
speaking of the neglect of religion and moral edu- 
cation in our land, " millions of people will grow up 
without any genuine religious training. If the home 
and the church shirk this responsibility, our people 
will be in fifty years a nation without a religion; 
that is, a nation disintegrating and dying." " If 
present tendencies continue," said President W. G. 
Eliot, speaking of the effects of our industrial sys- 
tem upon the workers themselves and the decline of 
family life, " in a hundred years there will be a ter- 
rible physical and moral degeneracy in the nation." 
" If our Republic ever dies," said President Lincoln, 
** it will die from suicide, from degeneracy." 



THE PASSING OF THE AMERICAN 

Beyond all the causes and tendencies that are at 
work in our land there is a process that is more fate- 
ful than any we have thus far considered. This is 
nothing less than the rapid passing of the American 
stock and the certain predominance of other stocks. 
It is not possible here to notice all of the causes and 
elements that enter into this process; nor can we 
discuss all of the results that are involved in the 
change. But several things may be noted for their 
direct bearing upon the question before us. 

I. The Meeting-place of Races 

In the past half century there has been a marked 
and significant change in the currents of immigra- 
tion. During all the early decades of our history 
practically all the people who came to our shores 
came from the north and west of Europe; in the 
main these people were of Saxon blood with the 
same or similar customs and ideas. But about the 
middle of the nineteenth century there came a 
marked change in the streams of life flowing to our 
shores. For two generations past a very large pro- 
portion of the peoples who came, fully three-fourths, 
are from Southern and Eastern Europe, people of 
different bloods and with very different customs and 
ideals. The fact that different peoples are coming 
82 



The Passing of the American 83 

to us at the rate of fully a million a year, would be 
a serious fact; even if all of these people were of 
similar blood, customs, ideals, and religion, their 
presence would create some serious problems of as- 
similation and adjustment. But the problems be- 
come tenfold more serious in view of the fact that 
they are of different blood and diverse racial types. 
This means that every year there came into our 
land fully three-quarters of a million foreigners rep- 
resenting different racial types and wholly different 
national characteristics. 

The World War, with the changes it brought in 
European life, has greatly affected immigration; it 
is hardly likely that the old numbers will be reached, 
and some streams may be diverted to other lands. 
But it is probable that the tide of immigration will 
rise and fall for many decades — unless we adopt 
some radical changes in our immigration policy. In 
America there is a meeting of various races and 
peoples, each with its own qualities and traits. The 
people of this land have declared their faith in the 
essential equality of all men and races ; and we must 
not deny our faith. This implies that every race 
has a right to be and to live its own life ; it implies 
that capacity is present in all men of all races ; that 
every race is good in itself and has qualities that are 
valuable in universal history. Since this is so we 
need not debate the question whether one race is 
really and racially superior to all others; nor will 
we argue the question whether one people carries 
higher values for the world than other peoples. All 
such considerations are waived aside here and do not 
enter into the discussion. But we are concerned 
with a more vital and fundamental fact; from the 



84 If America Fail 

point of view of our American life and our national 
calling, certain peoples and qualities are superior 
and wholly indispensable. A race type may be good 
in itself in relation to its own work and mission, 
and may have a high value in universal history. 
And yet it may not be a good race type in other con- 
ditions; it may not make a good blend with other 
races ; the very fact that it has a value for one race 
type, implies that it may not have an equal value 
for other types. More than that, a race and people 
has a right to live its own life and fulfil its special 
mission in the world ; and yet it may have no right 
to impose itself upon others or to change another 
type into its own. 

So far as we can see, taking races and peoples in 
the large, the qualities vital in our American life 
and essential in our national mission, are Anglo- 
Saxon qualities and traits; and these imply a free 
religious life and the democratic idea in national 
institutions. The Anglo-Saxon or Nordic blood pos- 
sesses the qualities of initiative and independence, 
of mental vigor and self-reliance, of stability and 
solidarity that lie at the basis of Protestantism and 
democracy, and both make Protestantism and de- 
mocracy possible and contain the promise of their 
continuance. 

Let it be freely granted that these people who 
come to America from the Old World are the equals 
of the Anglo-Saxon in natural capacity and race 
type. These alien stocks possess many good quali- 
ties ; the peoples are vigorous in body usually ; they 
are patient and industrious; they are deeply relig- 
ious and easily controlled. None the less, however, 
these may not be the qualities that distinguish the 



The Passing of the American 85 

Anglo-Saxon, and they may not be the quahties most 
needed in the Republic to ensure its stability and 
its perpetuation. 

II. The Persistence of Racial Types 

In the universe two tendencies are clearly marked : 
in fact every part and process seems to illustrate 
these tendencies. One is the tendency toward va- 
riety and differentiation; the other is the tendency 
toward interdependence and unity. The first of 
these tendencies may be noted here in relation to the 
production and persistence of racial types. 

In the long history of mankind various racial 
types and national groups have been produced. It 
is not necessary here to discuss the causes of these 
types or to mark the meaning of nationality. But 
everything indicates that this variety is a part of 
nature's program ; things have been designed to the 
end that mankind should be of manifold types and 
different characteristics. And everything indicates 
that these various types and traits will persist to the 
end of the story. There is no reason to suppose that 
racial differences will disappear, that the races will 
be melted down to one common type, and that all 
men will become members of one nationality. Va- 
riety is necessary in order that the universe may 
know the manifold wisdom and power of God. Va- 
riety is necessary in order that superiorities may be 
developed and tested. And variety is necessary in 
order that we may have not a unity of sameness but 
a unity out of diversity.^ Three things here are 
vitally related to our subject. 

» Batten, " Christ and the Nations," Chap. III. 
G 



86 If America Fail 

First, the significant thing about a people is not 
its class or its condition, but its racial traits and unit 
characteristics. 

Secondly, these traits and characteristics are per- 
sistent and neither blend with others nor undergo 
marked transformation. It is becoming evident 
that these traits and characteristics are carried in 
the germ-plasm and are therefore not subject to 
wide modification or change. And it is now known 
that " Unit characteristics may still appear un- 
affected by the repeated unions with foreign germ- 
plasms." - 

Thirdly, quite as significant is the fact that where 
different races with diverse traits exist side by side, 
one tends to outbreed the other and become predomi- 
nant. They may for a time exist in nearly equal 
numbers; but soon or late one race will gain some 
small advantage or capacity, which the other lacks, 
toward a perfect adjustment to its surroundings. 
Those possessing these favorable variations will 
flourish at the expense of their rivals, and their off- 
spring will not only be the more numerous, but will 
also tend to inherit such variations. In this way 
one type gradually breeds the other out.^ Not only 
so, but some changes in conditions may occur which 
give one race a marked advantage in the struggle 
for existence. A race may be thoroughly adjusted 
to a certain country at one stage of its development, 
and be at a disadvantage when an economic change 
occurs. 

The result is that one class or type in a population expands 
more rapidly than another and ultimately replaces it. This 

* Davenport, "Heredity in Relation to Eugenics," p. 225. 
•Grant, " The Passing of ttie Great Race," p. 42. 



The Passing of the American 87 

process of replacement of one type by another does not mean 
that the race changes or is transformed into another. It is a 
replacement pure and simple and not a transformation.* 

The bearing of all this upon the question before 
us is clear and startling. There is a struggle for 
existence on the part of the various races meeting 
in our land, and one or the other race will become 
predominant. The race that survives will be the 
fittest, not because it possesses superior racial 
traits or is most valuable to the nation, but because 
it possesses a certain adaptation to changed con- 
ditions. 

There is no race, per se, whether Slavic, Ruthenian, Turk, 
or Chinese, that is dangerous, and none undesirable; but only 
those individuals whose somatic traits or germinal deter- 
miners are, from the standpoint of our social life, bad.^ 

While there is no warrant for the arbitrary divi- 
sion of races into superior and inferior, yet it must 
be remembered that men of every race carry certain 
traits and characteristics, racial, social, political, re- 
ligious, that from the point of view of our national 
life and work may be called alien and may be unde- 
sirable if found in any numbers. 

Formerly, when we believed that factors blend, a charac- 
teristic in the germ-plasm of a single individual among thou- 
sands seemed not worth considering; it would soon be lost 
in the melting-pot. But now we know that unit characters 
do not blend; that after a score of generations the given char- 
acteristic may still appear unaffected by the repeated unions 
with foreign germ-plasm. 

* Grant, ibid., p. 43. 

" Davenport, " Heredity in Relation to Eugenics," p. 222. 



88 If America Fail 

In view of the fact that unit characters do not 
blend but may reappear after a score of generations, 
that the people of different bloods carry diverse 
racial traits and characters which persist unaffected 
and unchanged, that changing of conditions in a 
land may give one racial type an advantage in the 
competition of races, that the predominance of some 
racial traits and characters may be undesirable and 
bad from the point of view of our American 
life and national mission, the question before us here 
is one of the most serious and fateful that can con- 
cern the nation. The coming of so many people of 
diverse races into our land, the decreasing propor- 
tion of American blood carrying certain traits and 
characters that enter into the term American, the 
increasing proportion of the peoples of other bloods 
carrying different traits and characters, and the fact 
that in our land social and industrial conditions are 
growing which constitute a handicap to the Ameri- 
can race but give these foreign types an advantage 
in the struggle, create some problems that have to 
do with our national future, for the scale would 
seem to be weighted in favor of certain peoples and 
types. 

In our land for two generations and more the 
question of economic development has been the up- 
permost consideration. National policy, economic 
methods, national and State legislation, in the last 
analysis have turned upon the creation of material 
values and the promotion of industrial prosperity. 
It is true that other questions have been considered ; 
but the answer to one and all has turned at last upon 
the economic factor. We have gone on the theory 
that our business as a nation was to exploit this 



The Passing of the American 89 

continent, to develop its resources, to increase our 
national wealth as rapidly as possible, to become the 
foremost industrial people on the globe. Whatever 
promised to promote this material prosperity and 
the development of our resources, has been accepted 
and approved ; whatever had no relation to material 
values and did not promise industrial enlargement, 
has received scant consideration. One might sup- 
pose that our salvation as a nation depended upon 
nothing other than the size of our cities, the devel- 
opment of our industries, the dividends of our in- 
dustrial corporations, and the balance of trade in 
our favor. 

That these ends might be secured, immigration 
has been stimulated in every possible way. We have 
induced foreigners to come to our shores to increase 
the dividends of steamship companies, to build our 
railroads, to develop our resources, to give us an 
abundant supply of cheap labor. The number and 
quality of the men coming has seldom been consid- 
ered ; the probable effect of their presence upon the 
life of our own people has not been taken into ac- 
count. Five hundred years hence men will hold in 
scorn as enemies of the Republic the men of the pres- 
ent generation who have wasted our resources, cre- 
ated false ideals in the industrial world, exploited 
the labor of ignorant foreigners, overstimulated 
immigration to undercut our American working- 
men, and thereby endangered the future of the 
Republic. 

Several causes have worked together to produce 
the crisis in our economic and national life — the very 
causes that have changed the national stock in many 
lands and have resulted in the decline and decay of 



90 If America Fail 

many nations. These causes may be summarized 
somewhat as follows: (1) An increased uncertainty 
of a livelihood among the working people. (2) A 
great rise in the cost of living without any compen- 
sating increase in wages and salaries. (3) The gen- 
eral ambition among American parents to give their 
children better advantages than they enjoyed, (4) 
The general entrance of women into professions and 
occupations.® 

III. The Decrease of the American Stock 

In all lands, as we have seen, there is always a 
marked decline in the birth-rate among the luxurious 
and well-to-do classes. This in itself may be no mis- 
fortune, for so-called blue blood is apt to run pretty 
thin. The luxurious classes show not only a marked 
decrease in numbers in the third generation, but 
usually an even more marked decrease of quality. 
But in America at this time, due in the main to two 
causes, there is a marked decrease in the proportion 
of the American stock. First, the overstimulated 
and indiscriminate immigration has brought to our 
shores millions of people of different stocks and ra- 
cial traits; these have a lower standard of living 
than our native population and have crowded out 
the native stock in the older sections of the country. 
Secondly, this has resulted in an increased economic 
pressure among the native population, especially in 
the great American middle class. As a consequence 
there has been a marked lowering of the birth-rate 
among that class, for people were not willing to be- 
get children and subject them to an unrestricted 

' Holt, " Economics as Related to Eugenics," " Popular Science 
Monthly," Dec, 1913. 



The Passing of the American 91 

competition with people of lower standards of 
living. 

The cost of living has so increased that young men 
and young women hesitate to marry and build 
homes. Thousands and millions of young women 
are becoming wage-earners ; which means that they 
are less and less inclined to marry and become mak- 
ers and mothers of a home. The women of the 
great middle class who marry at all, are married 
much later in life than was the custom two genera- 
tions ago. In part, the declining birth-rate among 
the American people is due to the voluntary refusal 
of American women to bear the burden of a family. 
But a part of this decline in the birth-rate is due to 
the decreased fertility of women who marry later 
in life. 

It is not possible, and it is not necessary, to give 
in detail any proofs showing any marked decrease 
of the native American stock. But some facts may 
be noted. The United States census shows that at 
the beginning of the nineteenth century children un- 
der ten years of age numbered one-third of the popu- 
lation; at the beginning of the twentieth century 
they numbered less than one-fourth of the total. 
The census of 1900 shows that the birth-rate among 
the native stock was very much lower than among 
the foreign stocks. The Census Department in a re- 
cent publication gives the results of an inquiry to 
show the comparative fecundity of the American 
and the foreign women. This inquiry did not at- 
tempt to cover the country as a whole ; but was lim- 
ited to certain sections. These sections are found 
in the East and West, and they represent both the 
country and the city. 



92 



If America Fail 



Women Under 45 Years of Age, Married 10 to 
20 Years 

Average 
Total per 

Total number number married 

Class tabulated children woman 

White, native parentage.. . 15,592 42,933 2.7 

White, foreign parentage. . 61,816 272,763 3.4 

English 5,352 18,415 3.4 

Canadian-English 1,349 4,668 3.5 

Scotch 1,209 4,321 3.6 

Welsh 764 2,879 3.6 

Swedish 3,373 14,199 4.2 

French 329 1,413 4.3 

German 28,003 99,412 4.3 

Irish 9,975 44,308 4.4 

Hungarian 1,011 4,582 4.5 

Swiss 858 3,764 4.4 

Austrian 774 3,682 4.6 

Norwegian 3,774 13,972 4.7 

Italian 1,167 5,660 4.9 

Bohemian 2,298 12,102 5.0 

Finnish 312 1,657 5.2 

Russian 656 3,574 5.4 

Canadian-French 2,875 16,225 5.8 

Polish 1,476 9,080 6.2 

Other foreign peoples 1,132 4,826 4.3 

Negro 663 2,051 3.1 

Some general facts are made evident by this in- 
quiry. The figures all apply to married women un- 
der forty-five years of age, married from ten to 
twenty years. Of the women of native parentage 
13 per cent, had no children, of the women of for- 
eign parentage 5.7 per cent, had no children. The 
mothers of native parentage had 2.7 children per 
family; the women of foreign parentage averaged 
4.4 children per family. That is, ten women of na- 
tive stock had 27 children, while ten women of for- 



The Passing of the American 93 



't3 



eign stock had 44 children. Of the women of native 
parentage 9.9 per cent, had more than five children ; 
of the women of foreign stock 32.7 per cent, had 
more than five. Of the Italian women 37.5 per cent, 
had more than five children, and of Polish women 
60.9 per cent, had more than five. The women of 
native parentage averaged one child for every 5.3 
years of married life; while the women of foreign 
parentage averaged one child for 3.2 years. 

I may illustrate this tendency in our land by de- 
scribing a New England village. This town is situ- 
ated in southern New Hampshire in one of the older 
sections of the country. A hundred years ago this 
whole section was good farming land ; but much of 
the soil has been overworked, and its fertility is 
greatly reduced. The town in question has about 
800 population; these are all Americans — ^not a 
dozen foreigners among them. In the year 1913 
there were four marriages, eight births, and twenty- 
three deaths. There are 253 voters in the town, 
which shows a remarkable proportion of adults and 
men. That year there were enrolled in the public 
schools seventy-nine pupils. The community has 
something over two hundred separate homes, and 
the town averages about two-thirds of a child to a 
family. It is perfectly evident that the American 
stock is running out. In two generations the town 
will be practically depopulated, or what is more 
likely, the American stock will have passed, and a 
foreign-born stock will have taken its place. This 
is an extreme case, no doubt, but it illustrates the 
processes that are going on all over the land. The 
birth-rate among the native stocks is decreasing, 
both actually and relatively, and the American stock 



94 If America Fail 

is passing. Practically no people of Anglo-Saxon 
and allied bloods are coming to us by immigration ; 
our native American stock is not increasing. Prac- 
tically all of the peoples who are coming to us now 
are of Latin, Slavic, and Hebrew birth; and the 
birth-rate among them is very much higher than 
among our native stock. If the present tendencies 
continue, the American blood will be predominantly 
Latin, Slavic, and Hebrew. 

This is what we find : We have created conditions 
in our land which give the foreign peoples with 
lower standards of living an advantage over the na- 
tive stock with its higher ideals. In the eastern 
and northeastern sections of our land the population 
has changed largely from an agricultural to an in- 
dustrial people. And in these industrial sections we 
have created conditions which place the American 
family under a handicap. To secure low-paid work- 
ers for industry immigration has been overstimu- 
lated and millions of alien people have been brought 
into our industrial centers. These aliens have dis- 
placed the American workers and are practically 
predominant in many sections of New England and 
the Middle States. In these existing industrial con- 
ditions the American stock has been displaced and 
foreign bloods are proving themselves in a practical 
sense the fittest. 

One fact lying beneath the census figures must be 
pondered : The American stock is declining and dis- 
appearing. The census returns for the United 
States show a remarkable increase in population dur- 
ing the past century; but these reports do not tell 
the whole story. As a matter of fact, there has been 
an actual decrease in the American stock; and the 



The Passing of the American 95 

increase in population is wholly due to immigration. 
Havelock Ellis says that " The fertility of the old 
native-born population, mainly of Anglo-Saxon ori- 
gin, is found to be lower than in France." A birth- 
rate of two children to a fertile marriage will not 
maintain a stock or population ; at least four children 
to such a marriage are needed to cause an increase. 
The American women of native parentage with 2.7 
children per fertile marriage are not maintaining 
the native-born stock; if America had been depen- 
dent wholly upon the American stock for its popu- 
lation the census figures would have been reversed. 
That is, if it had not been for the incoming of mil- 
lions of foreigners and the greater fertility of the 
foreign-born stocks, the population would show a de- 
crease during the past decades. If then America 
were like France, dependent upon its own people 
and without much immigration, America would be- 
gin to show a greater decrease in the birth-rate than 
France. 

This decreasing proportion of births in the native 
stock means the decrease and disappearance of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. All investigations show that 
four children to a fertile family are necessary in or- 
der to have any increase in a stock. Three children 
to a fertile marriage will barely maintain a popula- 
tion ; but two children mean an actual decrease. We 
have seen that the native white woman shows a pro- 
portion of 2.7 children to a fertile marriage ; this is 
not sufficient to maintain the population. We have 
seen also that this proportion is falling decade by 
decade. This means that there is an increasing de- 
cline of the native stock. But on the other hand we 
find that the women of foreign-born parentage show 



96 If America Fail 

4.4 children to a family; while some races, as the 
Italians and Poles, show a much higher number of 
children. 

Not only is there an actual decline of the native 
stock and an actual increase of the foreign stocks, 
but the disproportion between the two shows 
a rapid decline of the one and a rapid increase of 
the other. Suppose that our American families can 
show only 2.7 children to a family while Latin and 
Slavic races show double that proportion. This may 
mean a ratio of two to four in this generation, but 
it means a ratio of eight to thirty-two in the second 
generation. Suppose that the American and North- 
European half of the population exactly maintains 
its balance between births and deaths, while among 
the foreign and South-European half the births are 
to the deaths as three to two. In the fifth genera- 
tion the progeny of the latter will outnumber the 
descendants of the more American population as five 
to one. Suppose further that the generations of the 
foreign half succeed each other as two to three; 
while those of the American half of the population 
succeed each other as three to two ; then in the fifth 
generation the progeny of the foreign half will pre- 
dominate by twenty-five to one. It is hardly likely 
that this proportion will be maintained, for the re- 
ports on the fecundity of American and foreign wo- 
men show a slight decrease in the number of chil- 
dren per family in the second and third generations 
among practically all foreign stocks. But every- 
thing indicates that there will be a comparative de- 
crease in the proportion of people of American blood 
and an increase in the proportion of people of Slavic 
blood. If present tendencies continue for five gen- 



The Passing of the American 97 

erations the Anglo-Saxon blood will have passed and 
other bloods will be dominant. 

The passing of the American blood will mean the 
passing of certain .marked American characteristics 
and the grov/ing of certain marked foreign types. 
The people of America in three generations, unless 
conditions change themselves or are radically 
changed, 

will rapidly become darker in pigmentation, smaller in stat- 
ure, more mercurial, more attached to music and art, more 
given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder, 
rape, and sex immorality, and less given to burglary, drunk- 
enness, and vagrancy than were the original English settlers. 
Since of the insane in hospitals there are relatively more 
foreign than native, it seems probable that under present 
conditions the ratio of insanity in the population will prob- 
ably increase.''^ 

If present tendencies continue, the people of this 
country will be more volatile in temper, more auto- 
cratic and less democratic in policies and social life, 
with less individual initiative, less independence in 
thought, less inclined toward Protestantism. With 
these changes in blood and type there will come 
changes in the moral, social, political, and religious 
characteristics of the American people. The Amer- 
icans of three generations hence — if present tenden- 
cies continue — will be less Protestant, more Catholic, 
less democratic, more favorable to autocracy than 
the people of today. 

Blood will tell in nations as in men. Environ- 
ment may do much to determine what qualities shall 
be developed and what may lie latent. But environ- 
ment acts only upon possibilities that are present ; it 

^ Davenport, " Heredity in Relation to Eugenics," p. 219. 



98 If America Fail 

originates nothing. Racial characteristics, as we 
know, are carried in the germ-plasm ; and these are 
inherent and do not change easily. No Latin or 
Slavic race has ever been Protestant and democratic. 
This change from the Anglo-Saxon stock, which is 
largely Protestant, to the Latin and Slavic races, 
that are now predominantly Catholic, may not mean 
that America will soon, if ever, become predom- 
inantly Roman Catholic. For Rome loses a very 
large proportion of the peoples who come to us from 
Catholic countries. But it may not mean that these 
people who are lost to Rome will become Protestant. 
Unfortunately, many of them are falling into un- 
belief and are repudiating all religions. What will 
all this mean in relation to the whole work of the 
kingdom of God? 

IV. The Value of Racial Unity 

The mingling of dissimilar stocks in our land 
raises a most significant question. What will this 
mean for the future of the nation? Three things 
are noteworthy : 

1. The blending of near races may bring life and 
progress to a people. Luther Burbank shows that 
the crossing of species and the selection of the best 
are the most potent means of progress. The cross- 
ing of species is paramount, and upon it, wisely di- 
rected and accompanied by a rigid selection of the 
best and a rigid exclusion of the poorest, rests the 
hope of all advance. But the mere crossing of spe- 
cies unaccompanied by wise selection, intelligent 
care, and utmost patience, is not likely to result in 
marked good and may result in vast harm.^ There 

•Burbank, "The Training of the Human Plant," p. 4. 



The Passing of the American 99 

is one condition on which this blending of races can 
be beneficial at all : It must be the blending of near 
types. 

The study of history will show that the great 
races have been fairly homogeneous peoples. The 
great races have not been widely mixed races. Biol- 
ogists have agreed that very close inbreeding is del- 
eterious and produces weakness. But quite gen- 
erally also they are agreed that panmixia, or the 
indiscriminate mingling of heredities, makes for 
deterioration and disintegration. The available evi- 
dence strongly supports the presumption that hy- 
brids produced by the crossing of varieties much 
alike are vigorous, adaptive, and competent. On 
the other hand the hybrids produced by the cross- 
ing of widely dissimilar varieties, show incompe- 
tency or worse characteristics.® In the strictest 
sense there is no such thing as a pure race, for many 
strains have entered into the blood of every people. 
One people touches another, and at the edges there 
is always some interblending. But with it all there 
are racial types that represent comparatively pure 
bloods. The blending of near-types may be bene- 
ficial; in fact the great races of history have been 
what we may call near-blends. But the blending of 
diverse types is neither beneficial nor desirable, and 
the verdict of history is strongly against it. 

The Hebrew race was made by a blending of 
bloods ; but these were near-types, and the Hebrew 
was a pure race. Because it was so pure it has been 
so potent and persistent. The Greek peoples also 
were a blended race; but they were a pure stock. 
We know how careful they were to distinguish the 

» Glddings, " The Western Hemisphere," p. 18, 



100 If America Fail 

Greek stock from both the autocthons and the bar- 
barians. The same principle applies to the Romans, 
the English, and the Germanic peoples. They are 
all mixed races; but they are near-blends and not 
diverse mixtures. 

2. The mixing of dissimilar stocks is not benefi- 
cial and does not make for progress. It lowers the 
racial type; it means race disunity. Suppose for a 
moment that the negro race could be assimilated 
and blended into the common blood. Remember 
that we are not discussing the question whether the 
Anglo-Saxon is superior or the negro is inferior; 
we maintain that they are different, and even if 
blending were possible, it is not desirable. The in- 
fusion of ten per cent, of negro blood into the Amer- 
ican race would greatly affect the American type 
and would not really benefit the negro. The same 
is true with reference to the Asiatic and Mongolian 
races; and the same is true no less with reference 
to the Latin and Slavic races. Some interblending 
will come about and may not be undesirable. But 
if there is a blending on a large scale, there will 
follow both a changing of the national type and a 
weakening of the racial life. If present tendencies 
continue, the population of America will for many 
generations be a hybrid of elements diverse and dis- 
similar. It is not possible for one to predict all the 
results of this mixing of different races. But if the 
verdict of history means anything, it means that 
there will be a change in the national type and a loss 
of racial quality. 

In America we find the most remarkable mingling 
of races the world has thus far seen. Under certain 
conditions the blending of these various races ac- 



The Passing of the American 101 

companied with a wise selection, might produce the 
finest race the world has ever known. But in this 
land, as we have seen, through the declining birth- 
rate of the American stock and the unwise distribu- 
tion of the alien bloods, we are effecting an almost 
complete reversal of wise selection. This mingling 
of races with its reversal of selection, is breeding out 
these qualities that are implied in the term Amer- 
ican, and is breeding in qualities that are alien to 
that term. 

More than this, this mixing of races in America 
has already manifested itself in a significant way. 
It is changing the mind and temper of the people. 
It is becoming evident that the American people are 
developing a fickleness of mind, an instability of 
temper, that may have momentous consequences. 
The people are quickly hot and as quickly cold. 
They are ready to crown their heroes today, but 
forget all about them tomorrow. They are subject 
to fits of temper and are easily thrown into panic. 
They adopt a policy one year and completely re- 
verse themselves at the next election. That we 
have become a fickle people, our history for the past 
fifty years shows. Professor Giddings finds many 
evidences of this.^*' We are distrustful of liberty. 
We are afraid to trust the people. In no country 
has there been such an intolerance of judgment, such 
a suppression of opinion. In no land have men so 
browbeaten the conscientious objector and so com- 
pelled loyalty. Seemingly we are afraid of our- 
selves. There is a feeling that no one can be trusted, 
but all must be censored in opinion and compelled 
to be loyal. And this in large part grows out of the 

i» " The Independent," Nov. 20, 1920, p. 262. 
H 



102 If America Fail 

fact that we have such diverse elements which are 
not fully blended. 

3. The blending of dissimilar stocks and the merg- 
ing of race types is contrary to the purpose and 
processes of nature. Some people with a very slight 
knowledge of history are forever singing pseans in 
praise of the blending of peoples and the future com- 
mon race. They look forward to a time when na- 
tional differences will disappear and mankind will 
practically become one type. But the whole history 
of nature fairly shouts against any such belief. 
There is no prospect, near or remote, of the blend- 
ing of all the races into one composite race ; it would 
not be possible even if it were desirable. So far as 
we can see, for all time to come there will be differ- 
ent national types and racial characteristics. Hu- 
manity is composed of all of us together and not of 
any one of us absorbing all the rest. America can 
make its largest contribution to universal history 
and the kingdom of God by developing a great, 
strong racial type with well-marked characteristics 
of its own. 

The possibilities that lie before us as a people are 
clear and certain. The presence of so many racial 
types means that for some generations the American 
people will be a hybrid race; and this may mean 
weakness if not disintegration. The processes of 
life in their long reaches will sift out certain bloods 
and types for survival; and in the far future one 
or more types will become dominant. But we have 
no assurance that these will be the best, from the 
point of view of our American mission ; nay, there 
are many reasons for fear that these may not be 
the best for our national destiny. At any rate, these 



The Passing of the American 103 

things must not be left to chance; we must under- 
stand the factors that are at work; we must then 
adopt such a course as will mean the unification of 
the people, and we must persistently study to create 
such conditions as will ensure the dominance of the 
best types. 

Some lessons we may learn from history: The 
great races have been more or less homogeneous; 
where very different types have been mixed there 
has been weakness and disintegration. Nature has 
shown her disapproval of hybrids, and in the long 
reaches of history she has eliminated one or the 
other. But unfortunately the types eliminated may 
not always be the least desirable; sometimes the 
type that becomes dominant may not be the very 
best. It may be the stronger physically ; it may pos- 
sess some characteristics which give it the advan- 
tage; but it may not be the best for the higher 
purposes of humanity. And while this process of 
sifting out the less desirable stocks is going on, the 
nation may fall into weakness and disintegration 
through the dissonance of dissimilar stocks. This 
calls for careful study on the part of the nation and 
for a wise national policy. However it may be in 
the lower ranges of life, in the case of man the whole 
process of society must come under the rule of rea- 
son and will. We must not try to blend dissimilar 
stocks. We must know what type we want to be- 
come dominant ; and we must create such conditions 
as will ensure the survival of the best qualities. This 
calls attention to the place of the family in our 
American life and the necessity of ensuring its sur- 
vival. And this emphasizes the importance of cre- 
ating such conditions as will make for the Ameri- 



104 If America Fail 

canization of the people and the clarifying of the 
American ideals. 



Gathering together the several threads thus far, 
this is what we find. In our land with the growth 
of prosperity there has arisen an overweening and 
pervasive Mammonism that is tearing down our na- 
tional ideals and affecting our social life. Within 
the past generation the strategic points of trade, a 
large part of our natural resources, and three- 
fourths of the available water-power have been 
monopolized and are now controlled by a few against 
the many. Owing to our industrial methods there 
is being created an industrial proletariat as hopeless 
as any the world has known. Through various 
causes the native English and Protestant stock is 
rapidly passing and is being replaced by alien and 
non-Protestant peoples. The people are given to 
pleasure and few will take to heart the need of the 
nation. And how shall it be with those that come 
after us ? We are wasting the resources of our land, 
impoverishing the soil, destroying the forests, wast- 
ing coal and gas, allowing the hills to be denuded of 
their soil and made barren forever ; we are allowing 
the people's resources of soil and coal, iron ore and 
water-power, to fall into the hands of corporations 
to be held against the people; we are allowing mo- 
nopoly to thrive and control two-thirds of the na- 
tion's wealth, to issue bonds which are claims against 
the people's life, and to fix prices to the producers 
and the consumer; we are setting dividends above 
life and are rating progress in material terms. We 
are sowing the wind; will not the coming genera- 



The Passing of the American 105 

tions reap the whirlwind? A writer in a recent 
number of the " Manchester Guardian " says of the 
present time, " It is the kind of situation in which 
former civilizations have gone down." Professor 
Patrick adds," " Other civilizations have perished 
under circumstances not substantially different." 
All the causes and conditions that destroyed the na- 
tions of the past are present and at work in America 
today. 

^1 Patrick, " The Psychology of Social Reconstruction," p. 13. 



PART II 

THE CONDITIONS OF NATIONAL 

SUCCESS 



VI 

THE SEARCH FOR JUSTICE 

The conviction that we have a national mission 
must be transformed into a conscious and serious 
national purpose. The American calling must be- 
come the cause for which a people will struggle 
and sacrifice. The consideration of the national 
mission will therefore mean an appreciation of the 
national ideals to be cherished and the kind of na- 
tional behavior we must require of ourselves. It 
will no doubt challenge to some hard and honest 
thinking, and then it will summon to do stern battle 
with forces and factors that are hindering our 
march and mortgaging our hope. It should give 
new courage as we fix our eyes on the stars and 
know that heaven is on the side of the people that 
aspires. 

That America may not fail, that she may fulfil 
her destiny, there are several things that she must 
do. Some of the things mentioned relate to social 
and political conditions and demand social and po- 
litical action. Some of them deal with industrial 
conditions and demand both moral teaching and so- 
cial legislation. Some have to do with city condi- 
tions and demand civic and collective effort. Some 
are concerned primarily with personal life and so- 
cial ideas and demand a new standard of values 
and a new kind of conscience. Some relate to what 
we may call the moral and spiritual life and demand 

109 



110 If America Fail 

a new emphasis upon the spiritual ideals of men. 
Life is a unit, and one thing is as it is because all 
other things are as they are. It is not for us to say 
which is the more necessary and vital at this time. 
Each is necessary. Each has a vital relation to our 
nation's future. 

I. The Moral Law 

First of all, we must realize that this universe in 
which we live is an honest and moral universe. 
Ethics is the nature of things. The foundations of 
the earth are laid in righteousness. The law of the 
moral harvest is just as true in the case of nations 
as in the case of individuals. Be not deceived, God 
is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man or nation sows, 
that shall they also reap. Many men do not be- 
lieve this ; they believe that nature is blind, and that 
they can outwit her. And so they play fast and 
loose with her laws and run their own pace. This 
universe is so regulated that any man can experi- 
ment with nature and can have his fling. But such 
experiments always have the same tragic ending. 
The madhouses and hospitals are filled with men who 
believed they could hoodwink nature and ignore the 
law of the moral harvest. 

What is true of men is equally true of nations. 
More than one nation has believed that it was a law 
unto itself, that it could control nature and repeal 
the law of the moral harvest. The failure of nations 
to heed this law has made the tragedies of history. 
It tells the story of many a proud nation that has 
gone to the rubbish-heap. It explains the tragedy of 
the great war in Europe. For generations the na- 
tion of Europe sowed the wind; they coveted one 



The Search for Justice 111 

another's trade and wealth; the stronger nations 
treated the weaker peoples as mere pawns on a 
chess-board ; they tried to checkmate one another in 
acquiring new territory and controlling trade- 
routes; they played fast and loose with justice and 
humanity ; they formed alliances and played off one 
against another; they allowed junkerism and privi- 
lege to exploit the people and grow rich out of their 
oppression ; they created war scares and encouraged 
international suspicions; they tried to maintain a 
kind of balance by compromises and leagues and dip- 
lomatic fictions. It ought to have been evident to 
all that a day of judgment was sure to fall. Alas, 
there were no prophetic voices to warn the nations ; 
if true prophets had arisen, their voices would have 
been drowned in the general clamor. And then at 
last, Europe reaped the whirlwind in the greatest 
tragedy of all history. The World War with its im- 
measurable desolations is God's way of balancing 
the books of nations. In Babylon and Rome, in Eu- 
rope and America, the nations that forget God are 
turned into hell. 

Will America learn the lesson? Or will it be de- 
ceived as other peoples have been ? Be not deceived ; 
God is not mocked; for whatsoever America sows, 
that shall America also reap. We cannot sow the 
wind without reaping the whirlwind. We cannot 
neglect the things that make for our peace without 
mortgaging the hopes of the nation. We cannot 
refuse God's king and choose Barabbas without 
signing our own death-warrant. We cannot sow the 
seeds of injustice and greed, class spirit and divi- 
sion, monopoly and mammonism, and escape decline 
and failure. We must sow the seeds of justice and 



112 If America Fail 

truth, of equality and fraternity, if we would be 
strong. We must obey God's law and live as brothers 
if we would live long in the earth. 

II. The Need of a National Conscience 

We must cultivate a sensitive, discriminating, and 
militant conscience. The institutions of the state 
are the organized expression of the people's religion. 
The politics of a nation are its interpretation of the 
Golden Rule. Politics is the art of applied religion. 
Social justice is men's interpretation of brotherhood. 
What we call civilization is simply applied con- 
science. As is a people's conscience, so will be their 
politics. *' Let me make the conscience of a people," 
so we may paraphrase the old saying, " and I care 
not who makes the laws." 

In saying that we need to cultivate a keen and 
militant conscience we do not mean to imply that 
we are lacking in conscience. As a matter of fact 
we have a very sensitive and active conscience in 
many respects, a discriminating conscience in per- 
sonal and family life, a sensitive conscience in ref- 
erence to certain customs and conventionalities. 
But it must be confessed that we have not a sensitive 
and discriminating conscience with reference to so- 
cial and industrial matters. We have a personal 
conscience, but not a corporate conscience. Men 
will do things as corporation managers they would 
never think of doing as individuals. Some would 
not steal a cent from any one by direct theft, who 
yet will steal wholesale by promoting worthless 
schemes and fixing monopoly prices. They are rev- 
erent in church, yet deny the name of God all the 
week by selling watered stock and buying city fran- 



The Search for Justice 113 

chises. They are willing to give large sums to char- 
ity, but tolerate any methods, however cruel, pro- 
vided only that they are done in the name of Big 
Business. They are shocked when boys play base- 
ball on Sunday, yet take dividends from corpora- 
tions working men seven days in the week. 

We need a revival of conscience. We need to cul- 
tivate a new blush. We must learn to call things 
by the right name. Stealing is stealing whether 
done on the highway by a club or in business by a 
rebate. Fraud is fraud whether committed by a 
well-dressed monopolist or a tin-horn gambler. Cor- 
nering foodstuffs is nothing less than constructive 
murder. The brand of Cain must be set upon the 
men who sell harmful nostrums and injure the peo- 
ple. The banker who makes millions financing ille- 
gal stock deals, is no better than the fence who 
handles stolen goods. We need a conscience that 
will give men no rest so long as corruption exists in 
the city hall and the police protect criminals ; a con- 
science that will steadily put men to shame so long 
as the white-slave traffic endures and monopoly is 
profitable. 

We need more light in the mind and more light- 
ning in the conscience. To this end there must be 
a qualified, conscientious, and devoted citizenship. 
The American people have developed individuality 
and initiative and have achieved wonderful things. 
But individuality alone is only a half truth, and out 
of relations it may become a dangerous doctrine. 
Our national virtue is responsible for some of the 
abominable conditions in our cities. We have stood 
alone in our individuality ; we have gone, one to his 
farm and another to his merchandise, and have neg- 



114 If America Fail 

lected public affairs. The American people have 
been good individuals, good churchmen, good busi- 
ness men, but they have not been good citizens. And 
this is due to the lack of a civic intelligence, an eco- 
nomic conscience, a social religion. There is intel- 
ligence enough, religion enough in any American 
city to transform it from top to bottom. But what 
we need just now is a civic intelligence, a commu- 
nity conscience, a social religion. 

Then we must organize that conscience in social 
customs and an industrial system. We must write 
out the articles of our religion in civil statutes and 
civic ordinances. We must build our faith and hope 
and love into the institutions of society. 

III. The Reverence for Law 

We need a new reverence for law. In these latter 
times, in democratic lands, the people have repudi- 
ated the idea of a law-maker whose will is supreme 
and whose word is final authority. They have de- 
nied forever the divine right of kings to make laws 
and to rule the people. They have swept aside the 
fiction of a priest or pope who is the vicegerent of 
the Eternal King. They have affirmed that govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the consent of 
the governed. All this we believe is proper and 
right and in accord with the will of God and the 
processes of history. But there is a grave danger 
here that no one can ignore. There is danger lest 
we lose out of our thought all reverence for law, 
and come to regard it as a mere compromise of 
interests, a balancing of expediencies. Woe to that 
people who have no infinite standard of right; who 
regard law as the mere will of the majority. Woe 



The Search for Justice 115 

to that people who see behind the officer of the state 
no higher authority than a written constitution. 
Such a people is on the high road to political cor- 
ruption and social anarchy. Such a people is ready 
to become the prey of intriguing politicians and 
selfish groundlings. A law that is simply the will 
of the majority speaks with no deep tone of au- 
thority and commands little reverence. To regard 
law in this low way, to see behind the law nothing 
but the intrigues of politicians and the interests of 
a class — than this nothing can be more ominous to 
the eye of truth or more ruinous to the nation. 

The American people are a fairly orderly and 
well-balanced people. But careful students of our 
national life tell us that reverence for law, as law, 
is at a low ebb. There is much real lawlessness in 
the land; but many of those who deplore the fact 
do not always locate its source. It is easy for the 
men of one group or class to point the finger at 
some other and accuse them of dereliction at this 
point. It is easy to suppose that the sins of our 
group are so trifling while those of a different group 
are so fatal ; it is easy 

To compound for sins we are inclined to 
By damning those we have no mind to. 

It has become quite the thing for people on the com- 
fortable side of life to point the accusing finger at 
saloon-keepers and working people and accuse them 
of all the sins in the category. And it has also be- 
come quite as common for agitators among the 
working people to point the finger of scorn at the 
rich and prosperous and say that they are sinners 
above all men. But as a matter of fact no one class 



116 If America Fail 

can arrogate to itself a monopoly of virtues and ac- 
cuse another class of preeminent sins. In much of 
the common talk about the lawless and dangerous 
classes it is usually assumed that they are the poor 
people, the working men and foreigners, the social- 
ists and anarchists who preach discontent and stir 
up the people. This is as shallow as it is unfair. 
It is unfair in that it overlooks one's own sins in 
censure of another's failings. The danger centers 
of our population are less the East Side than they 
are Fifth Avenue. In the words of Bishop Thomp- 
son, of Mississippi : " The luxuries, the vices, the 
family and social corruption which reign in our 
great cities, are not the sins of artisans and day- 
laborers. Playing cards for money is no worse in 
a beer-shop than in the Union Club House. To be 
tipsy there or at a corner groggery amounts to 
about the same thing. This assumption that sin 
lives in the tenement-houses and the moral virtues 
reside on the avenue, and that the churches must 
make special efforts to keep bricklayers, carpenters, 
and blacksmiths in order, that these last and their 
kind are the specially dangerous and sinful classes, 
is nearly always present in the plan of religious 
people to reach the masses. The assumption is 
worse than Pharisaism. It is blind ignorance of 
life and fact, and antichristian as well as senseless." 
These are brave, true words, and we need to take 
them well to heart. The men chiefly responsible for 
the corruption of our cities and the reign of law- 
lessness in the land are not the labor-union men 
and wild law-breakers ; but in New York and Phila- 
delphia, in Chicago and Denver, in St. Louis and 
San Francisco, they are the managers of corpora- 



The Search for Justice 117 

tions, the men of wealth, the leaders of society and 
the pillars of the churches, men who are often lib- 
eral in charities and sometimes models in their 
homes. These are some of the men who are cor- 
rupting city councils, purchasing franchises, nulli- 
fying the laws, and undermining the people's confi- 
dence in government. 

Today as never before, there needs to be a clear 
conception of the meaning of law and a new rev- 
erence for its authority. The throne, the scepter, 
the crown have been swept away. Now we must set 
up the grander throne of justice. We must see to 
it that the scepter of the land is the scepter of right- 
eousness. We must realize that the welfare of the 
people is the clearest human expression of the will 
of God. We must make the will of God the voice 
of the people and must write out that will in civil 
statutes. We must make the voice of the people 
speak the will of God by teaching the people to love 
his law and speak his will in their words. We must 
realize that law is " beneficence acting by rule " and 
has at heart the welfare of the people. Finally, in 
the immortal words of Lincoln we must say : 

Let reverence of the law be taught in schools and colleges, 
be written in primers and spelling-books; be published from 
pulpits and be proclaimed in legislative houses and enforced 
in courts of justice; in short, let it become the political re- 
ligion of the people. 

IV. The Search for Justice 

There must be a new search after justice. Jus- 
tice is one of the master words of Christianity. 
According to the prophet, the divine requirement is 
that men do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly 
I 



118 If America Fail 

with God. The prophet foretold the coming of One 
who should set justice in the earth and rule the peo- 
ple with equity. Jesus declares that the first duty 
of man is to seek the kingdom of God and its jus- 
tice ; and he pronounces a beatitude upon those who 
hunger and thirst after justice. The landmarks of 
the kingdom, according to the apostle, are justice, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Justice is the 
basic virtue of the good life. It is the bed-rock on 
which a nation must found its power. There must 
be something more than justice in society in order 
to secure peace and prosperity. But nothing less 
than justice can keep a people strong and save them 
from shipwreck. 

The title of this chapter is a challenge — intention- 
ally chosen as such. If one were asked what is the 
most necessary thing in our American life at this 
hour, one would have to confess that it is a passion 
for justice. There is much injustice in our modern 
social order, but it must not be accepted as a matter 
of course. Let us stand for the present order of 
things so far as it is just, no farther. Christianity 
is not here to keep things fixed, to make us compla- 
cent in the face of evil, to soothe people and make 
them satisfied with things as they are. Rather it is 
here to awaken in them a passion for justice, to 
sting and stir them into action, and to send them 
out to withstand all injustice and establish right- 
eousness in the earth. This ought to be self-evident 
to the man who believes in the kingdom of God. 

It is necessary first of all to have some conception 
of the nature of justice. In all times men have 
talked much about it and have sought to understand 
its meaning. In certain directions its meaning has 



The Search for Justice 119 

been understood and its obligations defined. Among 
the more advanced nations of the earth that mean- 
ing has been written out in great constitutional 
guaranties. In democratic lands at least, " We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- 
ated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable Rights, that among these 
are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." 
This is much, but it is not all. For thus far this 
principle has been interpreted almost exclusively in 
its personal and political bearings. Today humanity 
is beginning to feel that justice is a universal prin- 
ciple and must now be interpreted and applied in 
social and industrial relations. 

The law of justice is as wide-reaching as life and 
is as binding upon societies as upon persons. There 
is a just and right manner of life for the person, 
and there is a just and right manner of life for so- 
ciety. We pronounce a man unjust when he disre- 
gards the rights of others and makes his own wishes 
supreme; unjust, when he uses others as means to 
his own ends; unjust, when he seeks to receive 
goods and service from men without rendering any 
fair and equitable return. In the same way we pro- 
nounce a society unjust when any number of per- 
sons are without true inheritance in life. 

It is unjust when large classes in it are so enslaved by 
others as to be unable to develop their own lives; it is unjust, 
for instance, when there is any class in it so poor and so 
hard-worked or so dependent upon others, as to be unable to 
cultivate their faculties and make progress toward the per- 
fection of their own nature; it is unjust when the idle are 
protected and set in power, and the laborious are crushed 
down and degraded.^ 

» Mackenzie, " Manual of Ethics," Book III, chap. 2. 



120 If America Fail 

It is unjust when a disproportionate share of the 
goods of life falls into the hands of any special class ; 
it is unjust when a limited number of men, by any 
means whatever, without or within the law, are per- 
mitted to gain possession of the land, hold all the 
strategic points of trade, and compel the people to 
pay monopoly prices; it is radically unjust when any 
class in society is handicapped from birth and any 
number are without a fair access to the common 
heritage. 

Accepting this obligation to establish justice, these 
are some of the immediate things that lie along our 
path. Society must make a collective and continu- 
ous effort to establish justice all along the line of 
life. Every person has a right to a lifetime in our 
world and to advantageous conditions for the devel- 
opment of his personality. Society must protect 
every life from premature death and from needless 
hardship, and must seek to nurture it and to unfold 
its capacities. It must provide that gains received 
shall bear some relation to service rendered. There 
is wealth enough to give every person a fair material 
basis of life ; and yet one-fourth of the people in our 
cities never have enough to eat. The people's re- 
sources must be held in trust for all the people and 
every life must be guaranteed its equities. Monop- 
oly must be done away, and opportunity equalized. 
" Shall a few men own all the land," asks Lloyd 
George in England, " and the many be trespassers 
in the land of their birth? " Shall a few men con- 
trol the means of production and distribution in our 
own land, and compel all the people to pay monopoly 
prices? Shall a few men grow rich through the 
control of natural resources while the many are dis- 



The Search for Justice 121 

inherited and have no true opportunity in Kfe? 
There must be justice in society, justice all along the 
line, justice for poor and justice for rich, justice 
for the poor man's child and justice for the rich 
man's heir. Righteousness and justice are the habi- 
tations of God's throne, and righteousness and jus- 
tice are the foundations of human society. In jus- 
tice the heavens were built, and through justice the 
earth stands fast. 

Has the church the courage to testify for justice 
and hold up the Christian ideal ? Dare it be true to 
Christ and make no compromise with the spirit of 
the age? A time of trial and crisis is coming that 
will test men's faith of what sort it is. For the 
modern industrial world is willing the church should 
talk of sound doctrine and praise sweet charity, but 
the industrial leaders are not willing to hear of jus- 
tice in society and brotherhood in industry. Said a 
prominent New York business man, "When the 
church and the pulpit enter definitely into the com- 
mercial and industrial problem of our time they 
take their lives in their hands." If the churches 
hesitate to witness for justice and brotherhood for 
fear of consequences they will lose their right to be 
called Christian. Many men will build hospitals and 
orphanages to care for the people who are injured 
in industry, made sick in unsanitary tenements, ex- 
ploited by social vices, destroyed by overcrowded 
slums; but they are not willing to consider the 
causes of these evils and diseases. They will go on 
renting property for evil purposes, taking exorbi- 
tant rents for unsanitary homes, controlling city 
railway franchises and causing overcrowding, specu- 
lating in land values, and driving people into slums ; 



122 If America FaU 

they are willing to hear of sweet charity and will 
build hospitals for the needy; but they will not be 
just and remove the causes of disease and poverty. 
Men will do anything for the people, said Tolstoi, 
except to get off their backs. 

Injustice is the chief cause of discontent and un- 
rest. Many people misunderstand the causes of so- 
cial unrest; and so they misconceive the remedy. 
Some suppose that it is due to the evil hearts of 
men, to their selfishness and greed. Others imagine 
that it is due largely, if not wholly, to agitators who 
preach doctrines of revolution and stir up the people. 
Still others think that it is a temporary mood, a 
case of mob mind and disturbed imagination that 
will soon pass. And so they suppose that it can be 
met by mere platitudes or by suppression, or by 
stolid indifference. We may heed the word of Sir 
Charles Napier : " Idiots talk of agitators ; there is 
but one — injustice." 

There is therefore just one remedy for social un- 
rest, and that is justice. It is for us to find out 
what justice means and establish it in our land. It 
is for us to seek after justice and thereby make the 
soil immune to the seeds of anarchy and revolution. 
Justice is that which satisfies everybody. Men may 
seek for peace, but they will not find it till they walk 
in the way of justice. There is no other way under 
heaven revealed unto men whereby society can have 
stable peace, except the way of social justice. It may 
be claimed that justice is done in our land; but that 
is not enough. Unless the great majority of the 
people not only secure justice but believe that they 
secure it, our peace is endangered and our future is 
compromised. Unless the great majority not only 



The Search for Justice 123 

have a fair chance but believe that they have it, our 
ideal is discredited and our work not done. America 
must not be content to be as good as other peoples. 
It is not our calling to be even better than others, 
but to be good by our own standards. 

The writer is aware of the charge that is brought 
against those who face unpleasant facts and bring 
them into the light. They are called Jeremiahs and 
pessimists and dismissed with a smile. Now the 
true patriot is the one who, like Jeremiah, refuses 
to cry, Peace, Peace, when there is no peace. And 
the so-called optimist is the very worst pessimist; 
for he is afraid to face a hard fact, and so he closes 
his eyes and says he sees nothing. If much of our 
current pessimism shows a wavering faith, most of 
our popular optimism shows mental shallowness. 
The true optimist is the one who sees the worst but 
believes that things can be made better. 

In such a time as this no man can stand aside 
and say this enterprise is none of his concern. To 
be indifferent when the fate of the Republic is in the 
balance, is treason. To let things drift and do 
nothing, is the worst kind of doing. Because we 
love America and believe in its great mission, we 
can face our problems and task in a confident spirit. 



VII 



THE CONSERVATION OF OUR NATURAL 
RESOURCES 

There are certain things that are the necessary con- 
ditions of a people's existence; the soil and water, 
the coal and iron, the air and sunshine, the forests 
and plants. These things are given to the nation 
for the people ; they are the heritage of all, not the 
privilege of a few. And so no individual or set of 
individuals has the right to monopolize those re- 
sources to the disadvantage of the whole nation. 
These resources are given to the nation not for one 
generation but for all generations. And so no man 
and no generation has the right to waste those re- 
sources or dissipate the people's heritage. The in- 
dividual is for one generation, but the nation is for 
all generations. It is therefore the plain duty of 
the nation to conserve those resources and make 
them serve the whole people. 

The country known as the United States is con- 
ceded by all to have possessed greater and richer 
natural resources than any other country in the 
world. Here was a soil of unsurpassed fertility, 
capable of producing all kinds of crops and fruits. 
Here were unbounded forests with all varieties of 
timber. Here were our mines of coal and ores, 
among the richest in the world. Here were our 
supplies of petroleum and natural gas, the source 
of vast wealth. Here were our rivers and streams 
124 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 125 

watering the earth and providing natural water- 
ways. But alas, in our greed for wealth we have 
run through our resources with a worse than prodi- 
gal wastefulness. We cannot retell this story in 
fulness, for that would require many a volume, but 
we may indicate a few of the ways in which we 
have wasted our heritage, and may then note an 
imperative duty. 

I. The Waste of Our Resources 

1. The soil is the greatest resource of any people, 
for in the last analysis the life of the people depends 
upon the quality of its soil. This country had a 
marvelous variety of soils adapted to all kinds of 
productions; lands adapted to cereals, and lands 
adapted for fruits; soils heavy and light, in cold 
regions and in warm. There are two ways in which 
the soil may be ruined, by wrong methods of culti- 
vation that exhaust it, and by erosion that carries 
away its fertile surface. The American people 
have wasted the soil in both ways. 

We have overworked and abused the soil in many 
parts of the land and have greatly lessened its pro- 
ductive power. The farmer was consumed with a 
passion for money-making, and so he raised crops 
that exhausted the ground on which they stood, and 
then he neglected to enrich it. The consequence is 
that in many of the older sections of the country 
the soil has been worked out and is practically 
worthless. In many of the older States the produc- 
tive power of the soil has steadily fallen from year 
to year. The Department of Agriculture furnishes 
tables showing the yield of the principal crops for 
a number of years. This table shows a slight change 



126 If America Fail 

in yield of some crops during the past forty years. 
For instance, the corn yield of 1867-76, as com- 
pared with 1897-1906, shows a decrease from 26.2 
to 25.4 bushels per acre. On the other hand, wheat 
increased from 12 bushels to 13.8 bushels per acre. 
For the other crops there are similar slight de- 
creases and increases. 

These figures, however, are for the country as a 
whole and do not show the real drift. During these 
years many millions of new acres have been brought 
under cultivation and for a time their productive 
power increased. But a close investigation of the 
situation by Spillman, taking the country by regions 
and districts, and considering what has actually hap- 
pened, has led him to the conclusion that the fer- 
tility of the soil for fifty per cent, of our country 
has been lessened.^ One of the best-informed men 
of our land, James J. Hill, said : ^ 

There are ten States in this Union in which the wheat crop 
was less in 1908 than it was in 1888. Twenty years have 
cut this staple food product in many cases more than one- 
half. They are not all the poorest and oldest soils originally. 
Both the total crop of this country and its yield per acre 
have been maintained by resort to new soils not yet robbed 
of their fertility. 

In a special report on crops by the Department of 
Agriculture in 1912, we read that despite a record 
year of crop value and the fact that the number of 
farms has increased eleven per cent, since 1910, the 
record of production has fallen. In thirty-four 
counties in the great agricultural State of Ohio the 

*" Agricultural Production," by W. .T. Spillman; Report National 
Conservation Commission, Vol. Ill, pp. 2.57-262. 

" Van Hise, " Conservation of Natural Resources," pp. 298, 299. 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 127 

land is producing less per acre than it did fifty years 
ago. This waste of the soil through defective meth- 
ods of cultivation is serious enough, but there are 
other causes at work that are much more destruc- 
tive. 

The richest and best soil of our farms and hills 
is being carried away by erosion. According to the 
United States Geological Survey, the surface of the 
United States is being removed at the rate of one 
inch in seventy-six years. This amount seems trivial 
when spread over the surface of the country, but it 
becomes stupendous when considered in its results. 
These figures mean that over 270,000,000 tons of 
suspended matter are transported to tide-water 
every year by streams of the United States. 

The amounts removed from different drainage-basins show 
interesting comparisons. In respect to dissolved matter, the 
Southern Pacific basin heads the list, with 177 tons per 
square mile per year, the Northern Atlantic basin being next, 
with 130 tons. The rate for the Hudson Bay basin, 28 tons, 
the lowest; that for the Colorado and Western Gulf of 
Mexico basins is somewhat higher. The denudation estimates 
for the Southern Atlantic basins corresponds very closely to 
those for the entire United States.^ 

Thousands of acres in the Eastern States have been 
exhausted and made unfit for cultivation. One can 
ride through some of these States and see great 
tracts, once a perfect garden of the Lord, now un- 
tilled and growing up in scrub. " Today as you ride 
through the South," says Mr. James J. Hill, 

you see everywhere land gullied by torrential rains, red and 
yellow clay banks exposed where once were fertile fields, 

' " Water-supply paper," 234, " U. S. Geological Survey," 



128 If America Fail 

and agriculture reduced because its main support has been 
washed away. Millions of acres, in places to the extent of 
one-tenth of the arable land, have been so injured that no 
industry and no care can restore them. 

In many parts of New England the soil has been 
exhausted and is now practically worthless. Pro- 
fessor Carver, of Harvard, after an examination of 
these States says, " Agriculture as an independent 
industry, able to support a community, does not ex- 
ist in the hill parts of New England." " The decline 
of soil fertility," said the scientist Leibig, " and not 
either race or war is the fundamental cause of the 
decadence of nations." The history of every great 
nation that died — and every great nation in the past 
died — will show that it began to die in the country 
first of all. 

The American people have not been good farmers. 
This has not been due to the lack of general intelli- 
gence, but in the earlier years of our country it did 
not seem necessary to conserve the soil. People be- 
lieved that the country was illimitable, and " Why 
should we care for this little bit of land? When it 
is worked out, we can move farther west, and have 
a farm for the asking." This might be well enough 
perhaps if our country were really of infinite ex- 
panse and the population were small enough. But 
as a matter of fact, the territory is limited, and we 
have reached the land's end. There is now no Far- 
ther West. As a consequence the stream of life is 
now doubling back towards the East. But, alas, men 
are returning to find their heritage wasted. It is 
well for us to remember that the amount of land 
available for agriculture is at best limited. Of all 
the total area of the United States not one-half, prob- 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 129 

ably hardly one-third, can ever be used for agricul- 
ture under natural conditions.* 

The American people have been anxious to make 
money and have considered only the present hour. 
They have literally taken no thought for tomorrow, 
but have taken everything out of the soil for the 
day. The American people, said Henry Wallace, 
" are soil robbers." " Of all the sinful wasters of 
man's inheritance on earth," wrote Prof. Nathaniel 
Shaler, " and all are in this regard sinners, the peo- 
ple of America are the worst." In addition to this 
has been our excessive individualism which has 
made us suspicious of government and has demanded 
a free hand for every man. Other nations long ago 
devised a system of land conservation, and this ac- 
counts for the fact that such a nation as China has 
conserved the fertility of its soil for thousands of 
years. And this at once explains and justifies the 
statement of the Secretary of Agriculture: "We 
have been so bent on building up great industrial 
centers by every natural and artificial device, that 
we have had little time to think of the very founda- 
tions of our industrial existence." It has been as- 
sumed that we have had a natural monopoly in agri- 
culture, that it could take care of itself. And for the 
most part, we have cheerfully left it to do so. The 
story that comes from every section is substantially 
the same, a story of increasing tenancy and absentee 
ownership, of soils depleted, of inadequate business 
methods, of chaotic marketing and distribution, of 
inferior roads, of lack of supervision of public 
health and sanitation, of ill-organized social activi- 
ties, and of inferior intellectual provision. 

* Van Hise, " The Conservation of Natural Resources," p. 276. 



130 If America Fail 

2. Closely allied to this abuse of the soil has been 
the destruction of our forests. The forests of a 
country are among its most valuable assets and are 
related most directly to the nation's well-being. 
They have much to do with climate and rainfall. 
They are directly related to the water-supply and 
the condition of the soil. The presence or absence 
of forests in a country determines in very large mea- 
sure the question of a country's habitability. The 
disappearance of the forests in a land means its 
change from a garden into a desert. From history 
we learn that the eastern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean were once the homes of great cities and pros- 
perous peoples. 

The mountain region bordering east and west, extending 
for many miles inland, was covered with a dense forest com- 
prising the cedars of Lebanon, the fir and the sandalwood, 
covering an area of 3,500 square miles. The inhabitants of 
Sidon were largely engaged in cutting, hewing, and ship- 
ping timbers from the forests of Lebanon, and the seat of 
Sidon was a great lumber-market and its citizens skilled 
axmen.5 

The region around Jerusalem was fertile and sup- 
ported a large population. But the forests in all 
that section have been destroyed, and with the de- 
struction of the forests has followed a disappearance 
of the fertile soil. 

The rain-bearing clouds still float above the mountains of 
Syria, but they pass on over the bare and heated rocks, and 
the brooks and small streams of Palestine no longer exist, 
and throughout Syria stones furnish the only material for 
building, and wood is as precious as silver.' 

" " Conference of Governors, 1908," pp. 86, 87. 
" " Conference of Governors, 1908," p. 87. 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 131 

What has happened here has happened in a hun- 
dred other countries. The Mesopotamian valley in 
early times was a perfect garden of the Lord and 
supported a prosperous and teeming population. 
But men consumed with greed overworked the soil 
and neglected to restore and enrich it. Every man 
thought of his own interests, and so works of pub- 
lic improvement were neglected. Today large por- 
tions of that great valley are barren deserts where 
the sands drift and wild beasts howl. In other lands, 
as in India, the forests have been cut off and the 
hills have been washed bare. All through the East 
are great barren wastes never again to be inhabited 
by mortal man. Yet all through these lands are 
found the ruins of great cities, showing that the 
countries were once thickly populated and richly 
prosperous; today there are large tracts absolutely 
bare of soil, and the damage is beyond repair. 
The loss here is greater than the mere reduction 
of the productive power of the soil; it is the loss 
of the very " soil body itself." The " drying up " 
of these lands in Western Asia accounts in large 
part for the decay of the peoples. Moreover, be- 
cause of the drying up of the lands the people were 
compelled to move westward, and this explains many 
of the barbarian irruptions into Eastern and South- 
em Europe. In some of our Western States, where 
now we have nothing but arid wastes, there were 
once abundant forests, with an ample rainfall and 
a fertile soil. But millions of acres have been ruined 
beyond hope of recovery in any measurable time. 

The people of America have wasted their forests 
more wantonly and quickly than any people the 
world has known. The tariff on lumber has been 



132 If America Fail 

high, and this has induced our American lumber- 
men to cut down our timber as fast as possible ; for 
the tariff might be reduced some day, and so they 
resolved to sell their lumber while the prices were 
high. As a consequence, we have played havoc with 
our forests and in some States have destroyed them 
utterly. The disastrous results of this wanton and 
wasteful policy are seen on every hand. The cutting 
off of the forests has seriously affected the climatic 
conditions. But worse than this, it is causing an 
erosion of the soil that means unparalleled w^aste 
and inevitable disaster. We hear much in these 
days of the disaster caused by floods sweeping down 
the river valley carrying destruction and death. But 
let us not forget that our folly is largely responsible 
for these floods. The forests in the hills have been 
cut down, so the waters run off and rush down the 
valley, working ruin as they go. 

In many parts of our land one can see the same 
causes at work that have ruined millions of acres in 
India and have made a doz6n deserts. One can ride 
through the broken country in the East and West 
and see nothing but the bare and blackened stumps 
of trees. The growth of any new forest is being pre- 
vented by the fires which sweep over the hills. In 
many cases the very soil itself is being burned out 
and all its life destroyed. But all the time the rains 
are coming and the floods are carrying away all the 
loose rich top soil. Slowly but fatally the hillsides 
are being denuded, and the barren rocks are begin- 
ning to appear. These rocks will bear nothing, and 
it will take millenniums for them ever to be covered 
with soil and vegetation. In some parts of our coun- 
try the land may be forested, and in the course of 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 133 

time it will bear valuable timber. But this will re- 
quire five hundred years of time and the expenditure 
of large sums of money. This work, it is evident, 
must be done by the government and not by individ- 
uals. It costs from ten to twenty-five dollars to 
forest an acre of land. The price of one battle-ship 
would enable the government to forest at least half 
a million acres each year. But thus far we have 
more advocates for useless battle-ships than for nec- 
essary forests in our land. Men are interested in 
making and selling armor-plate to the government. 
But few men have any concern for the second gen- 
eration of people who come after us. 

There is one other fact in connection with the de- 
struction of the forests which may be noticed in 
passing. The average annual rainfall, for the coun- 
try as a whole, is about thirty inches. Some of this 
water runs off into the streams, but where the for- 
ests are found much of the water is held back and 
percolates into the soil. The loose and porous rocks 
near the surface of the earth act as a sponge and 
hold an immense amount of underground water. 
The amount of water thus held, according to W. J. 
McGee, is equivalent to a solid belt of water ninety- 
six feet deep around the earth. This water is the 
source of all the springs and wells ; in fact, it is the 
real source of a country's water-supply. Suppose 
that this supply of underground water in a country 
decreases. It is then only a question of time when 
the springs and wells of this country will go dry. 
This is precisely the result that is coming in the 
older sections of our country. McGee estimates that 
by injudicious farming and deforestation the water- 
table has been lowered in the United States from 
K 



134 If America Fail 

ten to forty feet. He estimates that in the older 
parts of the country fully three-fourths of the shal- 
low wells and springs have failed. " The springs 
have dried up, the small brooks have ceased to flow, 
the wells have been sunk to lower levels." ' 

No question before the nation is more vital than 
this of conservation. The time was when men ac- 
cepted the decay and decline of a people as a dis- 
pensation of Providence or a historic mystery. But 
we know today that the main causes are to be found 
in the destruction of forests and the exhaustion of 
the soil. This is the story writ large in the unpeo- 
pled valleys and dead cities of Asia, Africa, Greece, 
and Rome.^ In the decay of nations in the past, we 
can read the prophecy as to what the waste of re- 
sources may hold in store for us. 

II. The Program of Conservation. 

1. A program there can never be until first of all 
the evil against which it will be directed has been 
seen and felt as a hateful, destructive thing. In re- 
cent years many investigations have been made by 
various parties, by the government and private indi- 
viduals, and the main facts have been placed before 
the people. But there has been little discussion of 
the social and economic causes of this waste, and 
less emphasis upon the disastrous and fatal effects. 
The facts have made little impression upon the peo- 
ple, and where men have known the facts they have 
largely been indifferent. They do not see that this 
waste of resources is due to some serious defects in 

^ Van Hise, " Conservation of Natural Resources," p. 113. 

* Huntington, " The Pulse of Asia " ; Sinlihovitch, in " Political 
Science Quarterly," June, 1916 : nnd " The Foundations of National 
Prosperity," Chap. I and Appendix. 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 135 

our political and economic system. They do not see 
that the waste of resources has been one of the chief 
causes of the decay of nations. And so they do not 
realize that in permitting this waste they put a 
mortgage upon the hope of the nation. 

The first thing is to create a national conscience 
which will react against the evil. This monopoly of 
the earth and its resources is as sinful in morality 
as it is unwise in policy. The earth has God given 
to the children of men to be their home and to fur- 
nish them food. It is a wrong against mankind and 
a denial of the Creator's purpose to permit a few 
men to monopolize the land and to hold its resources 
against their fellows. This must be affirmed till it 
has become the working faith of the nation. The 
churches have an obligation at this point which they 
must meet. They should understand the teaching of 
Scripture and the purpose of the Creator with refer- 
ence to the earth and its resources; they should in- 
terpret the will of God on this question and create 
an informed and active conscience. They should 
say that men who grow rich by monopolizing the 
people's resources, thereby making the people's fuel 
dear and the workingman's home narrow, are among 
the chief sinners of the land ; and they should refuse 
to put their money, the price of human life, into their 
treasury. They should make the facts known to the 
people and make men realize the essential immo- 
rality of monopoly. They should teach that the peo- 
ple can be robbed by monopoly as really as by sneak- 
thievery, and that the latter is the less injurious of 
the two. Holding land out of use for speculative 
purposes is a fatal wrong against the people. It 
forces up the price of land and drives people from 



136 If America Fail 

the soil. It causes congestion of population in cities 
and is largely responsible for the high cost of living. 
It creates unrest among the people and goads them 
into revolt. One of two results always follows: 
Either the nation falls into decay, or the disin- 
herited children of the soil turn upon their op- 
pressors and rend them. If land monopoly is al- 
lowed to grow and continue here it will breed all the 
evils of feudalism and landlordism. Unless it is 
remedied the people will be stung to madness and 
will destroy their oppressors. 

2. The nation must guarantee to the people their 
equities in the national heritage. That portion of 
the earth possessed by a nation is the common heri- 
tage of the people. This principle is fundamental 
in the law and custom of every people in the earth. 
In practically all ancient communities of which we 
have any knowledge, the community was recognized 
as the owner of the land.^ The land and its re- 
sources were held as a common possession. These 
principles are fundamental in the Old Testament 
legislation, and are inwrought into the very life of 
the chosen people. " The earth is the Lord's," de- 
clared the old law ; " this earth has he given to the 
children of men " for their use and enjoyment. For 
this reason the land was not to be sold in perpetuity ; 
it must not fall into the hands of aliens ; it must be 
held in trust for the people of all generations. In 
the settlement of the Promised Land it was allotted 
by tribes, and the tribal share was apportioned to 
families. The family, not the individual, owned the 
soil, and the people were answerable to Jehovah 
for the use they made of their heritage. 

» Ency. Brit. art. " Land." 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 137 

Political justice recognizes the right of every per- 
son to the full protection of the law, to the enjoy- 
jnent of all his rights and immunities, and to a voice 
in the questions that affect his welfare. Every per- 
son born into the nation has an equal right with 
every other person born here, to be in the earth, and 
to have an equity in the common inheritance. He 
is not here by the sufferance of some landowner, but 
with a citizen's right in the land. As Washington 
Gladden has affirmed,^*' " No man's right to private 
property in land can be so sacred as every man's 
right to standing-room on the surface of the earth." 

This does not mean that the earth and its re- 
sources are to be divided pro rata among the people 
from time to time ; in fact, it means the opposite of 
that. It does not mean that no person shall have 
possession of any portion of the earth and its re- 
sources; as a matter of fact, it assures a real and 
valid use-possession. The state may wisely permit 
the individual to use a portion of the earth ; it may 
permit the private use of water-power and forests; 
it may allow individuals to mine coal and iron. But 
in all cases the state must safeguard the rights of 
every member of society so that each may receive 
an heir's portion in some form of social advantage. 

We cannot here discuss the question of property 
in general, nor consider how far individual owner- 
ship of the earth and its resources may be permitted. 
That is one of the questions coming up for a hear- 
ing in the next generation, and we cannot forestall 
it or forecast the outcome, but in the future society 
should affirm in a much clearer way than in the 
past, that the person is a trustee for the nation, and 

10 Gladden, " Tools and the Man," p, 79, 



138 If America Fail 

may therefore be called upon to give an account of 
his trusteeship. In the last analysis the final title 
to the earth is vested in the nation, not in the indi- 
vidual — a principle fundamental in all civilized leg- 
islation, though often nullified in practise. No man 
can hold absolute title to any bit of earth against 
society ; his possession is always limited by the ques- 
tion of public welfare. The Constitution provides 
that no private property can be taken for public 
uses without due process of law ; but it provides that 
society may assert its prior claim over that of an 
individual and may take whatever action is neces- 
sary to protect the rights and promote the welfare 
of the people. A man has a natural right to all he 
makes and earns ; but he cannot show a natural right 
and title to land and its resources. Society grants 
the right to use-possession but never forfeits the 
right of altering and limiting the title as it judges 
necessary. The question of state ownership of land 
and its resources may be open to debate; the prin- 
ciple of state control should be self-evident. 

3. The nation must conserve the national re- 
sources for the generations that are to come. In 
every land there are many men who care only for 
themselves and their own gains. They regard life 
as a game of grab. They frankly say, " Posterity 
never did anything for us." Like Louis XV. they 
are willing to feast though after them may come 
the deluge. They would enrich themselves though 
in so doing they mortgage and destroy the heritage 
of the people. The nation represents all of the peo- 
ple for today and for all the days. In the great 
words of Burke, " The nation is indeed a partner- 
ship, not only between those who are living, but be- 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 139 

tween those who are dead and those who are to be 
born." Suppose that the nation should permit the 
individuals of one generation to own and control 
the earth's resources as they please, to use the coal 
and soil wastefully, to cut off the forests and en- 
danger the streams, and thereby to squander these 
resources. In that case it has permitted the great- 
est wrong that can be committed; it has permitted 
a wrong not only against the present generation but 
against all generations. No one generation should 
be permitted to waste and misuse the earth's re- 
sources and thereby compel the people of later gen- 
erations to inherit an impoverished soil and a wasted 
heritage. Yet this is precisely the wrong that is 
allowed today in this land and in many lands. " But 
may I not do as I please with my own ? " says the 
man who is using and misusing the earth and its 
resources. The sufficient answer is this, that the 
earth and its resources are never your own to do 
with as you please. Society has a right, older and 
higher than the right of the individual, which it 
never can and never does surrender. 

The state, which represents all of the people and 
all generations of life, has a very clear and positive 
duty under these circumstances. It must not per- 
mit the soil to be overworked and impoverished. It 
must not allow the forests to be destroyed and 
thereby cause needless floods and soil erosion. It 
must not allow coal to be mined in an utterly waste- 
ful way. It must supervise the processes of coke- 
making far enough to prevent a needless waste of 
fuel. To sum up : There must be such a control of 
the earth and its resources, its soil and forests, its 
coal and iron, its oil and streams, as shall secure 



140 If America Fail 

from these the largest uses for all the people and 
for other generations. There are only these alter- 
natives before us: Either we must have state own- 
ership and control of the earth and its resources, or 
we must have such a full control as shall prevent 
waste and safeguard the equities of all the people. 
To permit monopoly of the earth and waste of its 
resources is a crime against the human race. 

4. In carrying out this program there will natu- 
rally be a survey of the natural resources of the coun- 
try, and as an outcome, a long, comprehensive, con- 
structive policy of use and conservation. It may 
not be possible to indicate all of the steps to the 
goal ; it is possible to have " a sense of direction " 
and to be sure that we are really moving in the right 
direction. We cannot reasonably go on in the pres- 
ent confused and aimless way, by which we either 
hinder the proper development of our resources or 
allow profit-hunters to obtain priceless privileges 
and exploit the people. Accepted scientific princi- 
ples must be the basis of our program. 

Some items in a policy of conservation are self- 
evident. For instance, our water-power must not 
be permitted to lie waste and unused. But in the 
desire to have it utilized we should not give it over 
to be monopolized by private individuals or corpora- 
tions to the disadvantage of the people. It is esti- 
mated that there is enough water-power running 
to waste in the one State of Pennsylvania to be more 
than equivalent to all the coal mined in the United 
States, This water-power, if carefully safeguarded 
for the people and not permitted to become a mo- 
nopoly, can produce light, heat, and power at greatly 
reduced rates and thereby benefit the people. 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 141 

There must be a large program of forest conser- 
vation and reforestation. In some parts of the 
land millions of acres can be forested in the course 
of time, thereby changing the flood situation and 
preserving the water flow. The savings due to pre- 
vention of floods in any one year would go far in 
providing for the necessary expense. But losses are 
diffused and individual, and a policy of conservation 
must be a national matter. More than that, it will 
be necessary to adopt a five-hundred-year program 
if the work is to be done thoroughly. Can a democ- 
racy develop the spirit of solidarity sufficiently to 
warrant such a program ? Will the people of today 
be willing to spend money on improvements that 
will not yield direct returns for a hundred years ? 

Some system of nationalization of the land and 
its resources may become necessary, at least a sys- 
tem whereby it shall be required that the man who 
would handle natural resources must obtain permis- 
sion to do so, and must render an account of his 
stewardship to society. 

In a more specific way it may be necessary for 
society by some system of progressive taxation to 
claim the unearned increment in land values. By 
some method of land tax it may be well to place the 
main tax on land values, and thereby make unprof- 
itable the speculative holding of the land and its 
resources. In the time to come no doubt society 
will itself own and control all natural resources such 
as coal, iron, oil, timber, and water-power. What- 
ever may be the full and final policy of society, pro- 
vision should be made now that no natural resources 
shall be alienated in perpetuity. In every case 
where individuals or corporations have the use of 



142 If America Fail 

natural resources, the franchise should be for a 
limited term. It should be made a criminal offense 
to issue stocks or bonds beyond the actual invest- 
ment. The rights of the people should be fully safe- 
guarded in matters of service and rates; and so- 
ciety should insist that the holder of a privilege 
meet his obligations to the nation. Everything pos- 
sible must be done to prevent the monopoly of the 
earth's resources and speculation in land values, to 
discourage the growth of great landed estates, and 
to encourage the widest diffusion of property. In 
our country there is an effort being made to take 
people out of overcrowded cities and settle them 
upon farms. " Get back to the land," is the cry 
today. But there is a need more fundamental and 
urgent than this : " Get back the land." This may 
well be the watchword of the nation for the next 
generation. 

This program of conservation demands some 
thorough-going changes in the spirit and policy of 
the nation. It demands a social mind in the rank 
and file of the people, a willingness to view things 
in their social relations and in the light of the com- 
mon welfare. It demands the forward look, the 
imagination to think of those who come after us 
and to plan for their well-being. But we might as 
well admit it, this type of mind is not common. In 
a sense our teaching and our maxims have been the 
opposite of this. We have emphasized liberty and 
individuality, the right of each to seek his own in- 
terest, the duty of society to let business alone. 
Posterity has never done anything for us; the in- 
terests of coming generations pay no dividends on 
investments. For these reasons the attempt to work 



The Conservation of Our Natural Resources 143 

out a long and comprehensive national policy of 
conservation of the nation's resources will be 
strongly resisted. The effort to make effective a 
policy which might mean the taking over of oil- 
wells, coal-mines and water-power — to use concrete 
illustrations — would provoke bitter opposition from 
some sources. Men would quote the old doctrines 
of economics and would ask that industry be " let 
alone." They would seek the defeat of public offi- 
cials who favored such measures, and would use 
their powers to shake public credit and precipitate 
a financial panic. They have done such things in 
the past, and they may attempt such things in the 
future. But whatever should be done, can be done 
and will be done. Salus populi suprenm lex. So- 
ciety cannot leave the person alone and permit him 
to do as he pleases. Society insists that every per- 
son who lives in society and enjoys its benefits shall 
submit to social control and shall have his conduct 
tested by its social results. In the same way a cor- 
poration or a business cannot be permitted to do as 
it pleases in methods and results, without reference 
to the common good. A world in which every man 
did as he pleased, would be a chaos. A society in 
which the principle obtains of every interest for 
itself, would be a world of disinherited men." 

The welfare of the nation must be the supreme 
concern of each. We never shall make much prog- 
ress toward the better order till we learn to rise 
above self and class and view each question and 
program in the light of the social whole. The own- 
ers of wealth, the leaders of industry, must think 
of themselves as trustees of the nation. And every 

" Small, In " American Journal of Sociology," March, 1916. 



144 If America Fail 

one who owns a farm or cuts a tree, must have the 
same sense of responsibility. As yet there is 
scarcely a glimmering of responsibility in the case 
of the vast majority of people.^^ ,^kis demands a 
new kind of patriotism, the love of country which 
will lead men to take thought for all and hold pos- 
sessions in trust for the generations to follow. It 
demands that each surrender his individualism, not 
for a year, but for life ; not only in personal moral- 
ity, but in social well-being. 

This demands that all cooperate in such a system 
as will ensure supervision and control of industry 
by society itself in the interests of all. Some of this 
work of control may be done by custom, some of it 
will come through moral and voluntary control of 
men. But we cannot depend upon these alone, for 
they are subject to fluctuation and are somewhat 
indefinite. In the last analysis much of it must be 
done by society itself through the state, which is 
the most representative institution of life, the im- 
partial arbiter of the common welfare.^^ In fine, 
this brings us to the question of a socialized national 
life, the subject of another chapter. 

1- Van Hise, " The Conservation of Natural Resources," p. 375. 
" Batten, " The Christian State," pp. 245-254. 



VIII 

THE PRACTISE OF DEMOCRACY 

It is the mission of America, as we believe, to real- 
ize the democratic ideal in the national life. In the 
prophetic words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, America 
is a nation " conceived in liberty, and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are equal." But de- 
mocracy is one of those great ideas that, like the 
horizon, widens as we move toward it. Like reve- 
lation, it is sufficient for today, and yet is ever and 
ever opening new pages of wisdom and truth. Like 
the kingdom of God, it is already here in process 
and yet is always to come in fulness. The demo- 
cratic ideal, for the present at least, is an unfalter- 
ing aspiration that calls to an unending adventure. 
The World War, whatever may be the changes it 
will make in the world's geography, represents the 
close of one age and the beginning of a new epoch. 
That war began as a European struggle; it devel- 
oped into a world revolution. It broke up the old 
order and threw things into a state of flux. During 
that war the institutions of society were tested and 
tried as never before, and some of them were found 
weak and defective. That war, in so far as America 
is concerned, was conducted to free mankind from 
autocracy and to make the world safe for democ- 
racy. But paradoxical as it may seem, democracy 
itself has been placed on trial and has been com- 
pelled to justify itself in universal history. The 

145 



146 If America Fail 

war tested our institutions and strained some of 
them at many points. The long period of recon- 
struction will test those institutions yet more se- 
verely and will show the real value of democracy. 

If the world is to be made safe for democracy we 
must know what democracy means and what it in- 
volves. And if democracy is to have its way men 
must know whether it is safe for the world. In a 
word, we must note the full meaning and wider 
implications of democracy; we must know whither 
events are tending and gain a clear sense of direc- 
tion. If democracy is to have its perfect work it 
must inspire the nation's faith and guide the peo- 
ple's purpose. We must note some of the new mean- 
ings of democracy and the new demands that are 
upon us. 

I. The Unfinished Story of Democracy 

Three great things, it has been said, are implied 
in democracy: liberty, equality, and fraternity. In 
the generations past, emphasis has fallen upon the 
first and second of these ideals. Thus far, however, 
we have not fully interpreted the third ideal, re- 
lated it to the other two, and noted the result. 

1. The story of liberty is one of the most glorious 
and fascinating stories in the world; a story man- 
kind must never forget. That they might be free, 
men have jeopardized everything, counting not 
their lives dear unto themselves. That they might 
be free, they have toiled and suffered, preferring 
starvation and exile to subjection. And their faith 
and toil have not been in vain ; for step by step the 
soul has gained its freedom, and syllable by syllable 
the meaning of liberty has been spelled out in Magna 



The Practise of Democracy 147 

Cartas and Declarations of Independence. The in- 
dividual has been emancipated, his rights have been 
defined and safeguarded in constitutional guaranties. 

Two things we notice in passing but cannot 
stop to discuss. The story of Liberty thus far is 
almost wholly a story of negatives. Thus the two 
great charters of human liberty, the Magna Carta 
and the Declaration of Independence, are both 
largely negative in form and assert the right of 
man to be free from all arbitrary restraint and ex- 
ternal exactions. This is what may be called the 
Nay of liberty, and while it is something, it is not 
the whole story. True liberty, we begin to see, is 
a positive thing, and to consider its negative aspect 
alone is to miss its high and divine significance.^ 

And this exclusive emphasis upon liberty has led 
to a false philosophy of life and duty which has 
had serious consequences. " The modern state," 
says Amiel ^ with keen intuition, 

is founded on the philosophy of atomism. Nationality, pub- 
lic spirit, tradition, national manners, disappear like so many 
hollow and worn-out entities; nothing remains to create 
movement but the action of molecular force and of dead 
weight. In such a theory liberty is identical with caprice, 
and the collective reason and age-long tradition of an old 
society are nothing more than soap-bubbles which the small- 
est urchin may shiver with a snap of his fingers. 

Democracy construed in this partial way means po- 
litical disintegration. It is evident that this is not 
the full meaning of democracy. 

2. During the nineteenth century some of the 
meaning and power of the second great word — 

' Batten, " Christian State," Chap. X. 
^ Amiel, " Journal," p. 102. 



148 If America Fail 

equality — has been defined in constitutional amend- 
ments. But equality, like liberty, has been largely 
a doctrine of negatives. It has been a denial of in- 
equalities, a leveling down. It has denied that king 
or noble is better or higher than the common man. 
It has denied the right of any man to any privilege 
not equally open to all. 

True equality, like true liberty, is a positive thing. 
It asserts the essential and inherent worthf ulness of 
every man, that the terms peasant and noble are 
purely formal and have no real significance. It 
therefore means a leveling up. It does not mean, 
of course, that men are alike in endowments and 
aptitudes. But it does mean that men are equal in 
their right to a place on earth and a lifetime in our 
world. It means that men are equal in their claim 
in the national heritage and their right to fair op- 
portunity in life. In the state it means that no man 
shall possess prerogatives which are not equally open 
to all. And in society and industry it means that 
men are to cooperate as partners and live together 
as brothers. 

Thus, both liberty and equality lead to fraternity, 
and never find their meaning till they so meet. The 
interpretation of liberty and equality in the light 
of fraternity; the practise of fraternity in relation 
to equality and liberty — this is one of the great tasks 
before the world today. In a large sense it may be 
said that liberty was the message of the eighteenth 
century, equality was the message of the nineteenth, 
and fraternity will be the message of this twentieth 
century. Then the centuries beyond must coordinate 
these three words and realize their larger meanings. 

3. Nineteen hundred years ago the Son of man 



The Practise of Democracy 149 

gave to the world the idea of human brotherhood 
and translated the truth into life and deed. While 
this idea has been confessed by men in all genera- 
tions, it has been very slow in getting itself realized 
in the thought and life of society. It has found ex- 
pression in the church and the family, in the 
prayer-meeting and the missionary society; it has 
had a partial realization in medieval brotherhoods 
and mystical orders, in trade guilds and secret so- 
cieties. But in a very hesitating and fumbling way 
it has been expressed in political policies and pro- 
grams. In these latter days the spirit of brother- 
hood is at work and is seeking a new expression and 
full realization. The church is teaching it ; " fra- 
ternal orders and labor-unions profess it; industry 
asks for it; legislation is feeling its influence; in a 
stammering way political platforms are writing out 
its appeal; civic programs are trying to interpret 
it; international congresses are confessing its au- 
thority." The people are in expectation and are 
waiting for some one to lead them into the kingdom 
of brotherhood. The supreme issue in every politi- 
cal, social, industrial, international issue is the ques- 
tion of brotherhood. The eternal conscience of the 
race is voicing a protest against everything that 
denies and hinders brotherhood and arrays man 
against man and nation against nation. The race 
is growing a determination to make brotherhood a 
fact in the life of the world. And democracy is the 
attempt to translate the principle of brotherhood 
into political and social life. 

All that brotherhood means no one can fully say 
at this time of day. But whatever it means in the 
Church and family it must also mean in State and 
L 



150 If America Fail 

nation. It certainly means that all men are made 
of one blood and share in one life; that they are 
equal in status and should be in opportunity; that 
every life has meaning and value ; that all are mem- 
bers one of another; that each is hurt in the hurt 
of his fellows ; that all are bound in the bondage of 
one, and each can become free in the freedom of 
many; that power means responsibility, and they 
who are strong are to labor for the good of those 
who are weak ; that a nation is one great family in 
which each has a place and should have an oppor- 
tunity ; that the resources of the nation are the heri- 
tage of all, and each should be guaranteed his equity ; 
that the intelligence and power, the resources and 
machinery of the nation are to be held in trust for 
the people and used for the common welfare. In a 
word, the principle of brotherhood is just as valid 
and authoritative in the State as in the Church; it 
is the inspiration of the prayer-meeting and of gov- 
ernmental policy. That this should seem strange 
doctrine to so many people in our day, shows how 
slow we are to believe in Christ and how far we are 
from full democracy. In a large sense the interpre- 
tation of brotherhood is the chief task of this com- 
ing century. 

II. The Positive Meaning of Democracy 

The meaning of democracy must now be inter- 
preted in the light of these three great words, and 
its positive aspects and social obligations must be 
emphasized. 

Democracy has glorified liberty ; it has encouraged 
individual initiative and has set a premium upon 
personality. Democracy has opened a career for 



The Practise of Democracy 151 

talent; it has given each man a free hand to make 
all the money he could; it has given a man a fair 
chance and told him to look out for himself. But 
it has given away the nation's soil to individual 
owners without any reserved rights; it has given 
away the nation's resources and has allowed indi- 
viduals to waste those resources and exploit them 
against the people. What is the result? Men have 
given themselves to their own interests, to money- 
making and to pleasure-seeking, and have neglected 
their civic and social obligations. They have re- 
garded their own individual interests as supreme 
and have used government as a means to their own 
ends. They have cut down the forests, overworked 
the soil, exploited the natural resources without any 
concern for other people or other generations. They 
have favored every measure that promised to ad- 
vance their interests and have opposed anything 
that limited the individual by the common welfare. 
This reign of liberty and individualism has led to 
the rule of self-interest in society and individualism 
in politics. It is in a large part the cause of the 
corruption in our cities, the dominance of monopoly, 
the waste of our national heritage, and the rise of 
the social problem. 

We are told sometimes that it is the glory of de- 
mocracy to create a man and let him be. This is 
but a half truth, and by itself it may be whole error. 
It is rather the high glory of democracy to create 
a nation in which the welfare of all is the concern 
of each. Some have praised America because here 
each was free to do as he pleased and to seek his 
own profit. We must learn to love America because 
it offers such a field of service for the common good. 



152 If America Fail 

This demands and implies a new conception of pa- 
triotism, a new social conscience, a new social sys- 
tem, a new constructive program of social service. 

Democracy must now complete its message in 
voluntary service for the common welfare. As it 
has made much of liberty, of rights and privileges, 
so now it must make more of service, of obligations, 
of duties. We must see that every right implies a 
duty and carries an obligation. We must know that 
a man's privileges must always be measured by his 
social obligations. We must make it plain that the 
advantage of all, and not the enrichment of a few, 
is the final aim. We must require each man so to 
use the nation's resources that the generations who 
come after us shall have a good heritage and not a 
worn-out land. We must learn to think of the state 
not as an evil, something opposed to man's true wel- 
fare, but rather as the medium of the mutual sacri- 
fices and services of the people. 

The story of democracy thus far is a glorious 
one ; but it is an unfinished story. If it should end 
here it would not justify democracy in universal 
history. No society can long exist without disci- 
pline and control, without the cooperation of all and 
self-sacrifice for the common welfare. Democracy 
does not mean less discipline and social control than 
a monarchy, but very much more. The main differ- 
ence lies not in the amount of social control but in 
its incidence. In a monarchy it is control imposed 
upon the people; in a democracy it is control self- 
imposed. Democracy does not mean less social coop- 
eration and self-sacrifice than an aristocracy; it 
means much more; but it is sacrifice and limitation 
self-chosen. Can democracy create this spirit and en- 



The Practise of Democracy 153 

force this lesson ? Can it train men in the practise of 
voluntary self-sacrifice for the common good? That 
it has not fully achieved this end, the waste of our re- 
sources, the condition of our cities, the grovv^th of mo- 
nopoly, the acuteness of the social problem, show 
most plainly. That democracy may spell out its full 
message and fulfil its unfinished task, fraternity must 
be the theme of the patriot's thought, the burden of 
the people's prayer, the object of the statesman's ef- 
fort and the passion of every citizen's life. 

III. The Extension of Democracy 

Democracy is government " of the people, by the 
people, and for the people." In the last analysis 
this defines the difference between democracy and 
all other forms of the state. In so far as we have 
this direct participation of the people in the affairs 
of government, we have democracy. In our land 
we have approximated a political government which 
rests upon the consent of the governed. We need 
not here discuss the question whether this demo- 
cratic experiment has worked well or ill. As a mat- 
ter of fact, it has not accomplished all that was ex- 
pected of it. At best, democracy has been but an 
approximation and has never had a full chance. 
More than that, we now see that democracy can 
never achieve its best results in one sphere of life 
alone. We must realize the democratic principle all 
along the line of life if we would have a real democ- 
racy in any one realm. 

In human thought and life there are several great, 
architectonic principles, as fundamental as life and 
as wide-reaching as the nature of man, and the prin- 
ciple of democracy is one. For a democracy, we 



154 If America Fail 

have begun to realize, is less a form of government 
than a confession of faith. It is the recognition of 
common aims and common hopes. It is an effort to 
realize in society the great fundamental truths of 
Christianity — liberty, equality, and fraternity. Since 
this is so, the democratic principle is a universal 
principle; it cannot be limited to any one sphere or 
relation of life; to limit it in any way is treason 
against the very idea itself. Hence democracy will 
never be more than a name till it is universalized in 
scope and applied all along the line. The name of 
democracy is one thing and the fact of democracy 
quite another. In the long run also a people must 
either abandon its democratic faith or it must prac- 
tise it in the whole of life. 

The exigency in our land and the spirit of the 
times demand that the principle of democracy be 
extended and applied in what may be called the so- 
cial and industrial realms of life. It is impossible 
here to enter upon a discussion of this task in all its 
breadth and meaning.^ This, however, may be 
noted : During the past century and a half the state 
has become more democratic, and democracy here is 
an approximation at least. Yet during this time in- 
dustry has become more and more autocratic; and 
today the great industries are autocratic in the ex- 
treme. Meanwhile, modern conditions have brought 
a realization to men that political democracy, with- 
out industrial democracy, is but apples of ashes. 
This is the underlying principle in the industrial 
struggle of our time ; it is a struggle for industrial 
democracy that shall secure for the people some- 

' In another volume, " The Christian State." Chan. V.. on " The Un- 
finished Task of Democracy," the writer has considered some of the 
meaning of this problem ; and he may refer to that book. 



The Practise of Democracy 155 

thing' of the same liberty and equality that political 
democracy has attained in political life. The strug- 
gle is for fundamental democracy, and no mistakes 
that men may make, no misconception of the pro- 
gram, may be allowed to blind us to the real issue. 

We cannot permanently maintain a civic state 
based upon democratic principles, while living in an 
industrial society that is oligarchic in form and 
spirit. " What I do say," wrote Abraham Lincoln, 
" is this ; that no man is good enough to rule over 
his fellow without that other's consent." We have 
accepted this saying as true in its political bearings ; 
but if the saying is true at all, it is just as true in 
economic and industrial affairs. " Give a man power 
over my substance," wrote Alexander Hamilton in 
" The Federalist," " and you have given him power 
over my whole moral being." Equality of political 
rights must lead to equality of social opportunity. 
Universal suffrage almost demands that every one 
shall be a proprietor. It is a contradiction that the 
people should be at once sovereign and miserable.* 

Man cannot be sovereign in one part of life and 
an underling in another. We cannot have a gov- 
ernment of the people where wealth, which is the 
basis of life, is by the few and for the few. Wealth, 
like government, springs from all the people, and 
therefore must be for all the people. If manhood 
is dishonored and certain inalienable rights are tra- 
versed when men are ruled from above and are 
taxed without their consent, manhood is no less dis- 
honored and man's rights no less overridden when 
a few men control the industries of a land and de- 
termine the conditions of trade. Democracy is lit- 

* DeLaveleye, " Contemporary Review," 1S83. 



156 If America Fail 

tie else than a name in an economic and industrial 
oligarchy. In a word, the democratic principle must 
be so extended as to insure a social and industrial 
democracy. 

Industrial democracy means that the parties in an 
industry are partners in the enterprise and every 
man has an equity in the business. The men who 
unite their lives in an enterprise, thereby become 
partners and should regard one another as such. 
Some men may invest money and oversight ; others 
may invest labor and life. But in all and through 
all the idea of partnership should ever remain in 
the foreground and determine the relation of the 
partners and the conduct of the industry. Each 
must seek the advantage of all, and all must be 
concerned for the welfare of each. Some equitable 
and satisfactory basis of copartnership must be 
found whereby the gains or losses of the enterprise 
shall be shared alike by all. Further, since the en- 
terprise is a partnership, all questions concerning 
it must be adjusted by the voice of all the partners. 
Every question that concerns the industry, salaries, 
hours, conditions, dividends, must be submitted to 
the council or court representing all the parties and 
must be determined by it. The wages paid must be 
based upon a full knowledge of the facts of the busi- 
ness. The profits of the enterprise must be shared 
equitably by all the partners. 

This means that there shall be such a combination 
of labor and capital in the same hands as shall give 
every man a stake in the enterprise and a voice in 
its management. It means that a man, who is 
something more than a cog in a machine and a hand 
in a factory, shall have a voice in determining the 



The Practise of Democracy 157 

conditions of his work and a fair share in the profits 
of the industry. It means that the system of co- 
operation and profit-sharing in both production and 
distribution, shall be so extended as to provide for 
the eventual democratization of industrial life. It 
means that the wealth which is created by all shall 
be shared by all ; that the product of industry shall 
be distributed on principles of equity that represent 
the judgment of all parties; and that an effort shall 
be made to distribute the product according to the 
contribution and needs of all. It means further, 
that an effort shall be made to lift the burden of 
poverty from every life and give it a true inheri- 
tance in society. It means that wealth, which is a 
social product and is a social stewardship, shall 
recognize its obligations and shall be held in trust 
for the public weal. It means that in modern so- 
ciety, as in ancient Rome, where the testamentary 
disposition of property is allowed, this privilege 
conferred on the heir shall always be coupled with 
duties to be performed and trusts to be discharged 
by him. It does not mean an equal distribution of 
the wealth of the nation, and it does not deny the 
right of the person to possess and use the property 
he has made. But it does mean that they who ren- 
der no service to society shall receive no income, 
and the profit of those who toil shall not be ex- 
pended by those who are idle. It does not mean 
that all men have equal capacity, make equal con- 
tributions to society, or shall have equal income. 
But it does mean that capacity shall be honored 
wherever it is found, and that an effort shall be made 
to develop capacity in all. It means that no man 
shall have less than his share in the total product, 



158 If America FaU 

and no other man shall have more than his just 
earnings. 

We have real democracy just so far as every man 
has place and standing in society, is able to do his 
best, make his contribution toward the values of 
society, and freely cooperate in behalf of the com- 
mon good. We call that government feudal, where 
things are done for the people without any coopera- 
tion on their part. It does not matter how or where 
this feudalism manifests itself, in Church, in State, 
or in industry; it is partial and negative, and thus 
far falls below the Christian faith and the demo- 
cratic idea. We are attaining to democracy just so 
far as all of the people are free to choose, each has 
a partner's share in the things that concern his wel- 
fare, and all are able to cooperate consciously to- 
ward common ends. 

This democracy of industry is necessary if de- 
mocracy itself is more than a name; if we would 
solve the social problem; if we would prevent the 
rise of a great industrial proletariat, a sodden mass 
of sullen and discontented people, at once a menace 
to the nation and a denial to our American idea. 
It is the only thing that can bring industrial peace 
and can fulfil the democratic ideal. 

IV. The Democracy of All Life 

If democracy is a valid principle in one realm 
of life it must be a valid principle for all life. But 
if it is a valid principle at all, its warrant must lie 
deep in the nature of man and the meaning of so- 
ciety. We cannot discuss in detail the underlying 
philosophy; but this work needs to be carefully 
done. We may note this, however, that democracy 



The Practise of Democracy 159 

is implied in the Christian conception of man and 
society ; it is a fundamental principle of human as- 
sociation ; it is necessary if humanity is to fulfil its 
appointed task, and it must be attained if Chris- 
tianity is to become regnant among men. 

Democracy assumes that the processes of society 
have some meaning and end. It assumes that the 
work of society can be done only by the effort and 
cooperation of all its members. It assumes that 
every life has some meaning and value and can 
make some contribution to the total meaning and 
values of society. It assumes further, that this con- 
tribution of each, to have a real meaning and value, 
must be voluntary. Plato defined a slave as one who 
accepts from another the purposes which control 
his conduct. Men do not become free till they un- 
derstand the process of which they are a part and 
cooperate freely to its success. If therefore the 
processes of society, whether religious, political, or 
economic, are to be human and fraternal, they must 
be democratic in spirit and form. And if democracy 
is to be a reality, all people, both men and women, 
must possess equal rights and must cooperate as 
citizens. 

And what does the practise of democracy involve ? 
It certainly involves much more than many people 
suppose, and makes demands which not all are pre- 
pared to meet. It clearly demands the imagination 
to look beyond self and see the common good, the 
willingness to subordinate self and cooperate for the 
common life, the development of a comprehensive 
national discipline, the ability to do team-work and 
thereby to make the nation fully efficient. 

The whole meaning of democracy must be spoken 



160 If America Fail 

and the whole message followed. Democracy is a 
form of government, but it is much more. It is an 
ideal and a fact. It is a faith and a practise. It 
must be an ideal, a chivalry, a faith, an interest 
that sanctifies all lesser interests, a passion which 
can evoke the fullest devotion of all. And it must 
be the daily practise of a people, the cause for which 
men lose their lives and by losing really find their 
lives, the unceasing effort to lift the daily task to 
the level of the highest ideal. Many people, even 
in America, question the practicability of democ- 
racy. But for good or ill democracy has begun, and 
it is too late to draw back. Is democracy working 
badly? Then we have not worked it fully. Is de- 
mocracy under a cloud? Then the cure for poor 
democracy is more democracy. We must learn the 
Yea of democracy, develop its positive and con- 
structive message. A democracy of negatives is 
played out. A democracy of atomism means na- 
tional disintegration. A democracy of self-interest 
and group struggle can never win the day. A de- 
mocracy without cohesion and discipline has no 
great future. 

We must interpret the democratic principle in its 
positive and constructive meaning. We must cease 
to construe everything in terms of individual pref- 
erence and group interest, and must learn to think 
in terms of national welfare and national life. We 
cannot fulfil our mission and make our calling sure 
merely by a maximum of economic prosperity and 
political independence. We can attain these ends 
only by a large measure of self-discipline and self- 
denial. We cannot realize the full meaning and 
glory of our democracy by making a few rich men 



The Practise of Democracy 161 

possible, but by making the rank of men brotherly. 
Liberty, individualism, individual initiative, the en- 
joyment of our rights, are all good and all neces- 
sary. But fraternity, social service, the fulfilment 
of our duties, are also good and wholly necessary. 
Will the nation learn the lesson and undergo a 
change of heart? Will the people repent of their 
self-seeking and learn to live for the common good ? 
Will men put away their excessive individualism, 
which is the essence of all sin, and find their life 
in the life of all? The future is uncertain. Self- 
interest stands in the way. The financial systems 
will resist. Men who have special privileges will 
not willingly surrender. In the name of liberty 
men will oppose all social control and will resent all 
interference with business. 

Democracy rests upon the worth of the common 
man. That we may be a democratic people castes 
and classes must be abolished. The people must be 
unified so that they shall be one in spirit, in mind, 
and in purpose. The different nationalities with 
their diverse traits and different ideals must be 
fused so that we shall have one American type. 
Conflicting classes, whether social or industrial, are 
as un-American in spirit as they are dangerous in 
tendency. This does not mean a dead level of uni- 
formity in ideals, in pursuits, and in traits; but it 
does mean the unity of the spirit and the absence 
of class strife. We must enkindle in the people a 
faith in our national calling and destiny; we must 
create in all, old and young alike, a vision of the 
one ideal and a loyalty to the common life; other- 
wise we face the disunion of the Republic into races 
and creeds, into sectionalism and localism, into class 



162 If America Fail 

warfare between capital and labor ; into selfish indi- 
vidualism rather than nationalism.^ 

The democratic idea is the interpretation into so- 
cial and political terms of some fundamental prin- 
ciples of Christianity. It aflfirms that every man's 
life is sacred, that every human personality is 
worthy of honor, that every man is called to live 
and to sacrifice for the common good. Democracy, 
which is the confession of brotherhood in political 
relations, is confidence in the downmost man and 
a regard for his personality. So far as democracy 
is true to itself and its origin, it believes in the pos- 
sibilities of this downmost man and seeks to create 
in him the full citizen's consciousness. It believes 
that the highest goods of life are for all men ; and 
so it seeks to bring these goods within the reach of 
every man. The believer in democracy cannot rest 
so long as a single soul is ignorant and unfit for 
citizenship. The whole democratic faith is at stake 
so long as there are classes in society which are 
sunken and submerged. 

Democracy is not an end but a means. The end 
of democracy is not merely to set man free from 
outside masters, to give him a vote in the state and 
a chance to hold some public office. It is not to 
sweep aM^ay some old forms of government and 
adopt new forms and new terms. This is to mistake 
form for substance and to cheapen the whole 
process. There is a great task going forward in 
this world, and each man is called to have some 
share in it. It takes all of us together to work out 
the task of humanity. The social process demands 
the cooperation of all and the contribution of each. 

• • Eellor, " straight America," p. 42. 



The Practise of Democracy 163 

That this may be secured, each person must be free 
from outside compulsion, free to see the end and 
choose it for himself. He must have some place 
and standing in society, some power of moral ini- 
tiative, some ability to order his own life. He must 
become a conscious partner in processes of society 
and have some voice in every issue. 

The end of every institution and government is 
the cooperation of all in behalf of the welfare of 
all. Democracy as a means is necessary, divine, be- 
cause it provides the means and machinery for this 
cooperation, this search of all after justice, brother- 
hood, progress, perfection. Democracy as an end is 
purely negative, partial, ineffective. Democracy as 
a means is positive, complete, potent. Now we find 
men free to seek the great ends of life for them- 
selves, glad to serve the common good, and finding 
in the institutions of society so many agencies 
through which they can cooperate in behalf of social 
progress. 

Dare we be a democratic people ? Are we willing 
to follow the democratic ideal whithersoever it may 
lead? That is the deeper issue in our American 
life. A people has as much democracy as it prac- 
tises and no more. Democracy is possible only with 
a democratically minded people. Many do not know 
what democracy means. Others are not willing to 
go the whole length with their ideals. But democ- 
racy is like Christianity itself ; it must be all or it is 
nothing. The nation cannot endure half democratic 
and half feudal. We must have a democracy of all 
life or we shall have no democracy at all. We must 
practise democracy or we shall lose it." 

« Roberts, " The Unfinished Programme of Democracy." 



IX 

THE DISCIPLINE OF THE NATION 

"The tents have been struck," says Gen. Jan C. 
Smuts, " and the caravan of humanity once more 
is on the march." This is a dynamic and not a static 
world. New ideals are coming above the horizon; 
there is a rising tide of aspiration in the hearts of 
men. Things will be different from this time for- 
ward. Mighty changes are impending in the struc- 
ture of society and the life of nations. Whether 
these changes will be for the better or the worse, 
whether men will behold the true pole-star and have 
the larger vision, or will make the Great Refusal 
and miss the kingdom, may depend upon the atti- 
tude and action of this generation. Will Church 
and State, school and home, hear the call of Provi- 
dence and give the nation a wise and brave leader- 
ship ; or will they fail to hear, hesitate and tempor- 
ize, and be content with half measures? Will the 
changes be haphazard and unintelligent, the mere 
shifting of material interests and political parties, 
or will they be directed and dominated by the moral 
and spiritual forces of society? In a word, will they 
come through revolution and bloodshed, or through 
conscious evolution under the direction of reason 
and righteousness? Things cannot go on as they 
have gone in the nation without inviting disaster; 
they ought not to go on as they have in a democratic 
and Christian order. 
164 



The Discipline of the Nation 165 

In the nation today everything is in a state of flux. 
Events in the world and the providence of God have 
heated the furnace seven times hot. Into that fur- 
nace have gone the materials of our life, the ideas 
and ideals of men, the policies and institutions of 
society. Some dross has separated itself from the 
pure metal and has risen to the surface. Down be- 
low the glowing metal is seething and heaving, im- 
patient to be drawn off into molds that shall fix its 
form and use. There has not been such an hour in 
the history of the nation, and there may never be 
such another hour so full of fateful possibilities. It 
is easy to shape the pattern and pour the flowing 
metal. It is hard to change the mold and file a cold 
casting. 

This suggests the question that is supremely 
important ; upon it depends the future of the Repub- 
lic and the success of our democracy. The present 
generation must set the pattern for the new na- 
tional life. We must prepare the mold into which 
the molten metal shall be run. What are the ideas 
and ideals, the institutions and policies of today that 
are to shape the nation's life of tomorrow? 

I. The Passing of the Old Individualism 

Democracy makes heavy demands upon the rank 
and file of men. It implies the interest and com- 
petency of the average man in political matters. It 
demands the active service and willing cooperation 
of all in behalf of public measures. But as every 
man knows, the American people have most sig- 
nally failed at this point. They are unwilling 
to pay the price of citizenship. Some of this is 
due to the national inertia of men ; much of it is due 
M 



166 If America Fail 

to an individual preoccupation with financial inter- 
ests. They have not been willing to bear their share 
of the burdens of the state. This is seen in the 
matter of taxation. In few American communities 
are taxes levied and collected with fairness. This 
is due in part to our antiquated and arbitrary sys- 
tem of taxation, but no less to the unwillingness of 
men to pay their share. Some of the rich men of 
the country are notorious tax-dodgers. More than 
one man who in life stood high in business and 
church circles, after death, when his estate was set- 
tled, has stood disclosed as a perjured tax-dodger. 
In many of our cities men of large property inter- 
ests find it convenient to uphold the political ma- 
chine. By this attitude they can be handled lightly 
by the tax-collector. To be an independent in poli- 
tics is often to be victimized by unfair assessment 
and pay an unfair tax-rate. 

Americans have very little interest in civic mat- 
ters. During a presidential campaign it is possible 
to awaken some interest and get out the voters. In 
other elections, where local issues and candidates 
are concerned, it is very difficult to enlist their co- 
operation. Yet these local measures are those which 
touch most vitally the welfare of the people and con- 
stitute the real test of democracy. Men have gone 
off, one to his books, another to his office, and have 
turned civic politics over to the machine politicians 
and the special interests. 

The result is that city government in America 
has become a public scandal. It is wasteful and in- 
efficient. Perhaps in no country in the world have 
the cities as little to show for the money spent. The 
business house that managed its affairs in such a 



The Discipline of the Nation 167 

wasteful and inefficient way would be ruined in a 
month. Some years ago President Andrew D. 
White said that the worst-governed city in Europe 
was better managed that the best-governed city in 
America. It is true that some notable gains have 
been made in a few cities ; boss rule has been broken, 
and the people have taken affairs into their own con- 
trol. But the people soon lose interest, and things 
fall back into the same old hands. It takes a moral 
earthquake to arouse the people ; and even then it is 
exceedingly difficult to keep them attentive to their 
public business. It is doubly difficult to secure effi- 
cient government because special interests are for- 
ever raising false issues to deceive the people and 
are ever on the watch to serve themselves. City 
government in America is civic inefficiency tem- 
pered by the fear of a moral upheaval. In the last 
few years, as every one knows, " invisible govern- 
ment" has been a fact. The great financial and 
commercial interests of the country are pretty 
closely allied today, and they are able to exert their 
power at any one point. They control a large pro- 
portion of the newspapers of the country. The aver- 
age newspaper is owned by a stock corporation; 
and the large shareholders are the financial and 
commercial men of the country. In ways that need 
not be analyzed, these special interests, through in- 
visible government, practically control the action of 
Congress and legislatures. At any rate they con- 
trol enough senators and representatives to deter- 
mine, in nine cases out of ten, the action of Congress 
and State legislatures. 

It appears also that the industrial processes have 
been regardless of the welfare of the people and the 



168 If America Fail 

larger life of the nation. Each industry has been 
controlled by its own managers, usually a few men, 
whose immediate object was profits. Coal has been 
mined with little concern for the welfare of the 
nation today or the resources of the nation to- 
morrow. The resources of oil have been exploited 
by individuals for the day's profits without regard 
for the future supply. Industry has been conducted 
for profits with little concern for the safety and life 
of the workers. The figures showing the number 
of workers injured and killed are a severe indict- 
ment of the people. Thus the number of fatal acci- 
dents among wage-earners is fully 25,000 a year; 
and the number of casualties of all kinds is as high 
as 2,000,000.^ Our industrial processes exact the 
terrible toll of one person out of 161 of the popula- 
tion to bleed and die. Every four years we kill or 
maim one hundred more persons than fell in battle 
or died of wounds during the four years of the 
Civil War. Five men are killed for every million 
tons of coal mined; some four persons in every 
thousand employed in the mining industry are killed 
each year. In one year the number of accidents 
alone in industry is over eight times as large as the 
entire casualties among our troops on the battle- 
fields of Europe during the World War.- It should 
be said that much has been done by the States and 
by employers to reduce this human toll. But 
America still stands low in the scale in safety 
measures. 

But beyond all these things, and far more serious 
from the point of view of democracy and efficiency, 

>^" Bulletin of Bureau of Ijabor Statistics," No. 157. 

2 Lieut.-Col. H. E. Mock, in " The Nation's Business," Jan., 1919. 



The Discipline of the Nation 169 

is our unorganized, inefficient industry, our indi- 
vidualistic and provincial economic policies. Thus 
far, due to many local causes, to an undeveloped 
country and a high tariff, we have been able to 
muddle along and grow rich. We have had an indi- 
vidualized industry for private profits, and the re- 
sults are known to all. It has encouraged a gross 
and cruel mammonism that has wrought confusion 
in the people's ideals. It has made wealth the 
end and man the means. This industry, for indus- 
try's sake, has built great industrial centers and has 
massed human beings together in unsanitary tene- 
ments and hideous surroundings with little regard 
for health or decency. This industry, for industry's 
sake, has worn out men and women before their 
time and then thrown them aside as so much junk. 
It has worked the life and hope out of men and 
women and has left life devoid of eternal values. 
Men and women have been used as industrial units, 
worth just what they could create in material things. 
This capitalistic industry has jeopardized the very 
peace of the nation. We know how, under the reign 
of this industry, great wrongs have been committed 
and gross injustice has been done. It has divided 
the industrial world into two rival and competing 
groups. It has overdriven the workers and has 
caused serious industrial overstrain. In a word, it 
has been unsocial and unjust and stands discredited 
and ashamed. We have lived at a prodigal rate and 
have wasted both our natural and human resources. 
We have grown rich in money values but have piti- 
fully neglected human life. All this warrants the 
severe words of President Van Hise : ^ 

» " Conservation of the Natural Resources," p. 60. 



170 If America FaU 

We hear of American progress, we hear of the position 
America has taken in the history of our world; we proudly 
boast of our leadership ; and yet in wasting our resources we 
have been guilty of more stupendous folly than any other 
people in the civilized world. 

It appears further that special interests and in- 
dustrial privilege have a strangle-hold upon the peo- 
ple. During the past years there has been a great 
increase in the cost of living. Since the great war, 
owing to various causes, the cost of some commodi- 
ties naturally rose. But this was not all. Practi- 
cally every group in the land used the war as a 
plea for raising the price of everything it could con- 
trol. The farmer raised the price of grain and milk 
and insisted on having his share of the general in- 
crease. The manufacturers of steel and the makers 
of cloth charged all the traffic would bear. Coal 
operators used the occasion to force up prices of 
coal. Working men went on strike and crippled 
trade and hampered the government, to obtain their 
share of the general profit. There were some noble 
and notable exceptions all along the line. But these 
exceptions served rather to show the general atti- 
tude. Individuals and corporations grew enor- 
mously rich out of the greatest calamity of the 
world. Some operations showed colossal profits, 
ranging from 100% and 1400% to 3500%. One 
prefers to believe that the American people love 
their country as passionately as any on earth and 
are willing to pay any price to uphold its institu- 
tions. Yet the fact became patent that many of the 
people allowed self-interest to determine their atti- 
tude and conduct. Many of the men who did these 
things are patriotic; some of them gave their sons 



The Discipline of the Nation 171 

to the army and navy. But at the same time they 
took advantage of their power and the people's ne- 
cessities to force up prices beyond reason. The in- 
dividualistic doctrine, in its negative aspect at least, 
leads to the reign of capitalism and self-interest and 
makes one doubtful concerning the future of the 
Republic. 

II. The New American Policy 

There has opened an entirely new chapter in 
American history, and no one can foresee the out- 
come. America, willingly or unwillingly, has be- 
come a part of the world's life. It may be that, in 
the years to come, America, singly or in alliance 
with other nations, will be compelled to meet on her 
own territory one or more of the nations of the 
earth in a life-and-death struggle. It is certain that 
America will meet the peoples of earth on the field 
of industrial competition. Soon or late, by one test 
or another, our civilization, our institutions, our 
methods, our democracy itself, must be tested and 
their survival value be proved. During the great 
war the United States took its place in the battle- 
line to make the world safe for democracy. But in 
war and in peace, America must prove that democ- 
racy is safe for the world. How will America meet 
the tests of the coming judgment-day? The study 
of history is not very encouraging on this question. 
It is true that democracy, as we know it, is a com- 
paratively new thing in the world. But democracies, 
in part at least, have existed in many lands. Aris- 
totle in his lost book on republics, gave the history 
of two hundred and fifty attempts at popular gov- 
ernment, and all were failures. The fact is, popu- 



172 If America Fail 

lar government since its beginning has proved to be 
exceedingly fragile and uncertain, and the appeal to 
history is not reassuring. Democracy did well 
enough so long as the people lived by itself and was 
not compelled to meet strong adversaries. Now in 
the hour of judgment will democracy be found weak 
and go down in failure? 

The World War has rudely disturbed our fool's 
paradise and has destroyed our self-confidence. We 
all feel that many things are appearing in the na- 
tion's life that betoken weakness and disunity; and 
if we should be placed in the scale we might be found 
wanting. Many men see this and are becoming 
alarmed. But unfortunately many misunderstand 
the situation and do not know how to meet the need. 
Some men, a large number, in fact, see no way of 
meeting the situation beyond military preparedness. 
And so they demand that we establish a system of 
military training, build a great navy, and raise a 
standing army. Some of this preparedness may be 
desirable and even necessary ; unfortunately, not all 
nations are moral or civilized in international poli- 
cies. But this kind of preparedness standing alone, 
counts for little and is a dangerous delusion. First 
of all, the appropriation by Congress of billions of 
dollars for military material signifies nothing. 
America has spent billions of dollars in the last few 
years upon such material ; but much of this money 
has been wasted. We are gravely told by experts 
that our battle-ships are no better than feri-y-boats, 
and that under stress of attack we could not defend 
a strip of our coast. 

Then too, national preparedness is something 
more than military equipment. In the report of the 



The Discipline of the Nation 173 

Secretary of the Interior for 1915, we find a sig- 
nificant statement: 

Some months since, I sought to learn what I could of the 
assets of this country as they might be revealed by this de- 
partment, where we were in point of development and what 
we had with v/hich to meet the world, which was teaching 
us that war was no longer a set contest between more or 
less mobile armed forces, but an enduring contest between 
all the life forces of the contesting parties, their financial 
strength, their crop yields, and their mineral resources; and 
that it ultimately comes to a test of the very agencies of the 
people involved. For to mobilize an army, even a great 
army, is now no more than an idle evidence of a single form 
of strength, if behind this army the nation itself is not 
organized. 

Military discipline and strength must rest upon so- 
cial solidarity and industrial discipline. The 
strength and efficiency of the mass must rest upon 
the strength and cohesion of the units. 

One other fact must be noted, for it shows the 
need of the nation and the direction of the new 
American policy. It has become evident that, on the 
whole, Americans have been living in pioneer con- 
ditions, with each looking out for himself but with 
few living for the common good. It has become 
evident that the old individualism had produced its 
natural fruits, and these endangered the very life 
of the nation. Each group and class was intent on 
its ov/n advantage and indifferent to the general wel- 
fare. Business was conducted in a slipshod and 
wasteful way. There was little coordination of 
forces and unity of effort. The churches were di- 
vided into two hundred and fifty denominations and 
were inchoate and inefficient. In a word, we were 
revealed to be an unorganized people, with abun- 



174 If America Fail 

dant energy and lofty patriotism but without co- 
ordination of forces or discipline of will. 

The welfare of society is the supreme concern, 
and each person must hold his life and property as 
a trust for society. In behalf of the common se- 
curity, society must take such action as may be 
necessary to regulate trade, to fix prices, to control 
natural resources to determine the amount of prop- 
erty that may be held, to require each to do his share 
toward the common good. In all this we have af- 
firmed the principles of eminent domain and social 
stewardship ; we have vindicated the right of social 
control and national discipline. It is true that we 
have not worked out these principles in all of their 
bearings ; we do not know all that these rights imply. 
This is a matter for the future to develop. But it is 
enough for our generation to affirm these principles 
and rights and to know that in their direction lies 
the way to progress and security. 

The exigency of the war has shown what the na- 
tion can do to make life safe and to conserve its man 
power. Many of our communities are dirty, ugly, 
unsanitary, and unwholesome. We had built our 
cities without regard for life and health. We had 
conducted industry with no concern for the health of 
women and the welfare of people. But in the time 
of need, in order to protect the soldiers, the nation 
was compelled to take virtual control of the whole 
life of the community. Houses have been inspected, 
and orders given to make them sanitary. Wells 
have been filled, and sewers have been built. 
Ditches to carry off sewage have been dug. Swampr> 
have been drained, and the breeding-places of mos- 
quitoes have been abolished. The milk-supply has 



The Discipline of the Nation 175 

been inspected, and milkmen have been obliged to 
be careful. As a result, whole sections, once full 
of malaria and fever, have become sanitary and 
safe. In many communities the disease-rate has 
been reduced two-thirds, and certain old scourges 
have been exterminated. The nation has been giv- 
ing a living illustration of what can be done to make 
communities safe and wholesome. More than that, 
we have come to understand the authority vested in 
society to safeguard life and promote human well- 
being. Have we been taught this lesson in vain? 
Will men resent this socialization and fall back into 
the old order of things? To suppose this were pos- 
sible would be to convict mankind of idiocy and 
folly inconceivable. He is a fool and blind who sup- 
poses that the nation will relapse into the old order 
and resume life where it was left when the war be- 
gan. A war of enfranchisement is on, and many 
chains — political, social, economic — will be broken. 
The laissez-faire policy should now be dead be- 
yond hope of recovery. The reign of individualism, 
with each for himself, has meant the ruin of many 
and the oppression of monopoly. It used to be 
taught that competition was the life of trade and 
that prices were regulated by the law of supply and 
demand. But we know that open and fair competi- 
tion no longer exists ; for combination has killed it. 
The law of supply and demand has nothing to do 
with trade and prices today; for corporations con- 
trol trade and fix prices. Further, it used to be 
taught that that government is best which governs 
least. It was hence the business of government to 
let industry and trade alone; it was sufficient for 
government to guard the ring and see that men 



176 If America Fail 

fought fair. But while this policy reigned corpora- 
tions grew powerful and gained control of trade. 
The nation allowed its resources to be appropriated, 
often by chicane and collusion ; the cost of commodi- 
ties was forced up to the point of injustice; the fer- 
tility of the soil in many sections has been greatly 
impaired; men have been driven from the farms, 
and millions of acres have gone out of use. Surely, 
the " let-alone " policy should now have killed itself 
by indulgence. Social control should now be on the 
throne and now direct the nation's advance. 

But let us not deceive ourselves on this question. 
The recognition of a necessity is one thing ; the reali- 
zation of a policy is a very different thing. We must 
learn well the price of success and progress. Social 
gains are never automatic. They always come as 
the result of thought and effort. The danger before 
the nation is that of reaction. This is not the first 
time that the nation has been compelled to take con- 
trol of industry and regulate the life of the people. 
During the Civil War there was much regulation 
and control. Then came a reaction followed by a 
perfect orgy of individualism. In that period privi- 
lege grew strong, monopolies thrived and grew fat, 
the rights of the people were ignored, and the na- 
tion's resources were given away in the most waste- 
ful and unjust way. The disintegrating forces in 
society are many and apparently are active. The 
unifying forces, unfortunately, seem to be few and 
are working at cross-purposes. It is necessary, if 
our civilization is to be saved, to turn our attention 
at once and seriously to the integrating forces which 
make for social discipline, for national cohesion, for 
law, for progress. All this suggests the supreme 



The Discipline of the Nation 177 

task that faces American democracy today, at once 
a challenge and a test. 

III. The Socialization of the People 

America, to fulfil its mission, democracy, to jus- 
tify itself, must develop a social discipline and in- 
dustrial efficiency far beyond anything that exists 
today. It is too early in the day for any one to fore- 
cast all the changes that are necessary. But some 
things may be seen clearly. 

First, there must be a change in the spirit and 
policy of the nation. The old individualism taught 
that the individual is supreme and his interests are 
his final law. It taught that the rule of the game is 
" each for himself and the devil take the hindmost." 
Thus it sanctified the game of grab and the rule of 
self-interest. This old doctrine must pass and we 
must have a new national faith. We must learn to 
think in terms of the common life. We must inter- 
pret ethics and religion in terms of community ser- 
vice and social welfare. There must be a sacrificial 
spirit which will make one willing to lay down prof- 
its for the sake of the common advantage. There 
must be a willingness on the part of each group and 
industry to look not alone on the things of self but 
first of all upon the common good ; a willingness on 
the part of all to bring every policy and process to 
the test of the social welfare and to accept what- 
ever change may be necessary. There must be cre- 
ated a keen and sensitive national conscience which 
will search men through as with the fire of God, 
and will summon men and policies to the judgment- 
bar of heaven. We must gain the sense of the whole 
and make the common welfare supreme. We must 



178 If America Fail 

affirm that power, to the last atom, means responsi- 
bility; that to use power and privilege to exploit 
the people for one's own enrichment, is the essence 
of all immorality; that they who gain control of 
the strategic points of trade and exploit these to 
their own advantage against the very health and 
life of the people, are among the chief of sinners; 
that they are good men whose lives make for more 
good in society; that they are righteous who seek 
not their own advantage but the profit of the many. 
There must be an intelligent understanding of the 
deeper issues involved in national policies and pro- 
grams. The nation, equally with the person, is un- 
der obligation to seek first the kingdom of God and 
its righteousness, and a mere compromise of inter- 
ests, a balancing of experiences, can never add 
themselves up into essential righteousness and yield 
a social unity and a national life. 

Secondly, the processes of society must come un- 
der the supervision and control of society. Too long 
each group in the nation has considered its own in- 
terest and has had little regard for the common in- 
terest. Each section has tried to make its own laws 
and carry on its operations without reference to 
the national welfare. This must no longer be. So- 
ciety must end the rule of injustice and bring about 
the reign of justice; must make an end of monopoly, 
whether monopoly of land, of the earth's resources, 
of trade and finance; must abolish privileges of 
whatever kind, social, political, or economic. The 
people must regain their lost right to the earth, to 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Men who do 
no productive work must not be allowed to draw 
large incomes while the many toil long and hard and 



The Discipline of the Nation 179 

live meager lives. The power of the capitalist specu- 
lator to manipulate securities and to levy toll upon 
society, must be ended once and for all. A just dis- 
tribution of the proceeds of labor and the products 
of industry must be secured. The resources of the 
earth, which are the heritage of the people, must be 
held in trust for all, and each must receive the 
equivalent of his equity in the form of education 
and opportunity. The people must come into their 
own. 

Thirdly, there must be a socialization of the in- 
dustrial life of the nation. The one supreme end, 
the great whole which implies and includes the 
parts, is the common welfare. Whatever promotes 
that end is good. Whatever interferes with it is 
evil. Thus far, however, we have regarded man for 
the sake of industry and industry for the sake of 
profits. This must now be changed, both in its 
policy and its methods. The industrial process is 
a part of the social life and must always be consid- 
ered in its relation to the whole. It is not an end in 
itself, but exists for the sake of society. It is neces- 
sary that the process in its units be related to the 
process as a whole. It must be subordinate to and 
included in all communities and interests within the 
common purpose of the nation.* The socializing of 
industry means, therefore, the harmonizing of in- 
dustry with the total welfare of society. It means 
that the process of industry, in its spirit, methods, 
and results, shall be conducted in such a way as to 
promote the total progress of the nation. This ap- 
plies to the whole process of making wealth, con- 
trolling and distributing it. Whenever the process 

* Small, " General Sociology," p. 342. 



180 If America Fail 

affects society in any way, and every industry does, 
it may be so supervised and controlled. As a person 
must be socialized, that is, learn to take his place in 
society, conform to its regulations and serve its wel- 
fare, so industry must be socialized ; that is, find its 
place in the social order, have its methods and re- 
sults tested by the common welfare, and conform 
to social regulation. 

This, it should be noted, implies the socialization 
of trade and industry and not their destruction. In 
the past generation there has been a marked ten- 
dency toward combination and concentration in eco- 
nomic affairs; and this has its good as well as its 
evil side. Thus far, however, industry has been 
capitalized by financiers and has taken the form of 
trusts and monopolies. We do not here debate the 
question of how far trusts have reduced costs and 
have really benefitted the people. It is certain that 
they have been exploited by capitalists and have en- 
riched a few men. But this tendency toward com- 
bination and cooperation in itself is right and should 
not be hindered. The advantages to society are too 
manifest and too real to be denied. They who would 
suppress all combination and break up big business, 
know not what they do. All unthinkingly they 
would turn the hands backward upon the dial of 
progress. Men who have known the advantages of 
combination will never willingly throw them away. 
But society cannot allov/ these combinations to ex- 
ploit the people and oppress any. It must accom- 
plish the more necessary and yet more difficult task 
of securing the benefits of combination tvithout suf- 
fering any of its evils. It must insist that industry 
and trade shall be organized on the basis of national 



The Discipline of the Nation 181 

service, and it must see that they are conducted on 
principles of justice and equity. No just interest 
will suffer by this action; but no unjust method 
should be allowed to pass. 

Two possible courses are open before us; Either 
we must have the social ownership and control of 
all the means of production and distribution, or we 
must have such a control and supervision by society 
as shall safeguard the people's interests and give 
each person his equities. Which road shall we pre- 
fer? Each man's answer will no doubt grow out of 
his general attitude toward life and society. This 
is certain, that the men who oppose full social con- 
trol and supervision of the whole process of produc- 
tion and distribution, are the very men who are driv- 
ing the nation into a full national socialism. By full 
supervision and control is meant precisely what the 
words imply. Society must not allow the people's 
resources to be monopolized and wasted. Society 
must supervise the process, must know whether fair 
wages are paid and fair profits are taken. It must 
assert the right to determine profits and dividends, 
to fix prices and regulate distribution. It must, in 
a word, see to it that every man, every interest, 
every process, finds its place in the total process and 
cooperates toward the one social end. 

It is perhaps needless to say that this will mean 
some pretty radical changes in the accepted prin- 
ciples and present methods of society. It means 
that the whole industrial process in its bearings and 
results, must be measured simply and solely by its 
relation to human values, must ever and again be 
brought to account and tested by its human results. 
The time is coming when the success of an enter- 
N 



182 If America FaU 

prise will be measured not by the dividends going 
to a few, but by the increasing life of the many 
workers ; when industry must accept its relation to 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and must 
be conducted for the same ends that moved Jesus 
Christ up Calvary. 

Finally, as the crowning of all, America must de- 
velop a social discipline and national solidarity far 
beyond anything that exists today. Democracy, we 
have seen, is the cooperation of all, by all, for the 
sake of all. It is the willingness and ability to do 
team-work. But this team-work, to have value and 
power, must be efficient. 

Humanity moves forward in the degree in which men 
learn to appropriate the advantages and control the disad- 
vantages of team-work with one another. But team-work 
means operating as a team — each member in his place and 
working in his place to make the team efficient and the 
members consequently successful — no member getting a suc- 
cess which forces the team to carry him as a dead weight, 
not to say as grit in its running-gear. . . The vital question 
in American life today is, whether we can achieve a con- 
trolling sense of responsibility of the individual to the whole ; 
whether we can develop a type of citizenship which feels 
bound to share the common burdens; or whether we must 
grow apart and disintegrate because the different groups of 
us have no care beyond the particular interest of each.^ 

Can dem-ocracy develop this social efficiency and 
national discipline, and remain democracy? It is 
easy to believe that any state which seriously ad- 
dresses itself to the work, can in time develop this 
discipline and efficiency. But can it remain demo- 
cratic in the process? For this supervision and 
control, paradoxical as it may seem, must be wholly 

» Small, " American Journal of Sociology," Sept., 1917. 



The Discipline of the Nation 183 

voluntary. Democracy, as we have seen, means self- 
government and self-control; it means voluntary 
self-surrender for the sake of the common life. 
Governmental control imposed upon the people may 
be necessary, but it is not democracy. It is neces- 
sary for America to develop a discipline and control 
as real and effective as that of autocracy; but it 
must be a voluntary control and self-imposed disci- 
pline. Many men and many groups do not realize 
that we have come into a new day. They are trying 
to carry on affairs in the old way of " each for self, 
and take all you can." They have not learned the 
fact that they are a part of society and must both 
contribute their share toward the nation and be- 
come a part of the social process. But all must learn 
the great lesson; and all must be willing to accept 
the discipline and uphold the control. Here is the 
supreme test of democracy; at once the proof of its 
power and the mark of its success. 

The history of the world is the judgment of the 
world. The whole world process has a moral mean- 
ing: it makes for the development and survival of 
certain great qualities. Call it what we will, there 
is a world struggle for existence with the survival 
of the fittest. God and nature demand the best of 
men and nations. In the long run the best survives 
and the second best fails. But the best is not that 
which is theoretically and abstractly the best; it is 
rather that which is practically and generally fittest. 
Athens had more culture than Macedon, but it lacked 
vigor and cohesion, and so it failed to survive. Rome 
conquered the world when it possessed unity; it lost 
the world when it lost virtue and solidarity. The 
whole cosmic process shows that nature cares more 



184 If America Fail 

for quality than for quantity ; she prizes mutual aid 
more than mere egotism ; she demands solidarity no 
less than individualism. Friendliness, cooperation, 
discipline, are better than numbers, wealth, and big- 
ness. 

The testing hour of democracy has come. Amer- 
ica has produced great wealth, but it has not found 
any means of moralizing that wealth or of dis- 
tributing it justly. America has produced many 
millionaires; but it has done this at the cost of 
human life and the sacrifice of social justice. It 
has developed individual initiative; but has not de- 
veloped a national discipline. The amount of wealth, 
the number of millionaires, even individual initia- 
tive alone, are no marks of fitness and contain no 
assurance of permanence. These things may be 
good enough in a way ; but the qualities that are best 
must be read in other terms. We may say that 
fitness consists in a balance of qualities; but the 
presence of several elements, though good, may not 
mean that a civilization is best or a nation is fittest. 
Cohesion, solidarity, discipline, efficiency, are the 
qualities that give final advantage in the long run. 
The testing of our institutions, of our discipline, our 
democracy, may come on the field of world battle 
or it may come upon the field of industrial efficiency ; 
but soon or late the issue will be joined and the 
judgment-day will arrive. In either case it will not 
be a contest of mere armies in battle or of competi- 
tive traders for a market ; but in the truest sense it 
will be an enduring contest between all the life 
forces of the contesting parties; and it is certain 
that the nation with the finest discipline and the 
greatest cohesion, will have a clear advantage. The 



The Discipline of the Nation 185 

people that conserves its human resources and pos- 
sesses the highest efficiency, will carry off the prize 
from the world contest. 

Will America learn the lesson and take all neces- 
sary measures? Will our democracy develop this 
social discipline, this industrial power? Will it cre- 
ate a national solidarity and produce a democracy 
of all life ? There are some signs of promise, though 
the outlook is clouded. The history of the past and 
the tendencies of the present, are not fully propi- 
tious. To develop such a discipline will mean the 
rejection of some of the merely negative presuppo- 
sitions of democracy. It will mean the acceptance 
and prosecution of a long constructive program of 
national discipline. It will mean the subordination 
of private opinion and class interest to concern for 
the welfare and advantage of all. It will mean ex- 
altation of the public good above all, and the effort 
of all in behalf of all. To create such a national 
solidarity and social cooperation demands a change 
of mind and purpose on the part of all, a spirit of 
brotherhood, a sacrificial attitude of soul. But an 
excessive individualism, the selfishness of groups, 
a blindness to long issues, a philosophy that inter- 
prets everything in terms of self-interest and group 
advantage, an inability to see things from the other 
man's point of view, stand in the way and bode ill 
for the future. At a time when there should be a 
development of a philosophy of democracy and fra- 
ternity, we find men confusing the issues by an ap- 
peal to an eighteenth-century individualistic philos- 
ophy. At a time when we should be conserving and 
developing the life forces of the nation, we find 
men blind to everything except military preparation. 



186 If America Fail 

At a time when we should be working out a large 
policy of national industrial discipline, we find the 
forces of reaction organizing to oppose all social 
legislation. Thus some of the manufacturing and 
commercial interests of the country have organized 
and have declared their intention to sweep away all 
social legislation that restrains business and ham- 
pers trade; in a word, they seek to wipe out legis- 
lation designed to protect human workers and pre- 
vent industrial exploitation. And workingmen no 
less blindly are growing suspicious of social legisla- 
tion and are falling back upon labor unions and 
class struggle to secure their rights and promote 
their interests. America to succeed must be more 
than a mass of conflicting groups and competing 
interests. It must be one people with one ideal, one 
mind, one life. 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE AMERICAN 
FAMILY 

In a real sense America is the proving-ground of 
the world. Here peoples of various racial types, re- 
ligious faiths, social customs, and political ideals, are 
meeting together and are struggling for survival. 
Here on a larger scale and on a freer field than ever 
before in history is to be decided which of these 
possesses the greatest survival value and so is the 
fittest. Some of these will grow and become domi- 
nant, others will decline and fall out of the race. It 
is quite possible, of course, that in this process those 
types and faiths, customs and ideals that survive, 
will themselves be greatly modified by those that 
fail ; it may be, in fact, that the weaker will be ab- 
sorbed by the stronger. Passing this, however, we 
must note the test of survival value. 

What are the qualities and factors that decide 
which shall survive and which shall fail? It is nec- 
essary that we understand our terms. By the fittest 
we do not mean merely the best in the abstract, for 
nature knows nothing of any such principle; we 
mean the best in the concrete situation. The issue 
of survival or elimination, so history shows, does 
not turn upon the racial types, social customs, re- 
ligious faiths, and political ideals that may be purest 
and best in the abstract ; it turns rather upon those 
that have the greatest survival value in their condi- 

187 



188 If America Fail 

tions. A racial type may be fine and high in certain 
respects; but its members may lack cohesion and 
vigor, and so it goes down before one with greater 
vigor and solidarity. A religious faith in point of 
doctrine may be quite apostolic and Christian in 
many essentials; but if it lacks propagating power 
or its members shirk parenthood and fail to develop 
a stable family life, it possesses little survival value. 
One people may possess a higher degree of intelli- 
gence, a finer artistic quality, a purer religious faith 
than another with which it comes into contact and 
competition. And yet, as in a hundred nations in 
the past, it may lose out in the struggle and disap- 
pear from history. 

The end we seek in the great future is the crea- 
tion of an American race ; a great, vigorous, united 
people with high ideals, with moral power and 
American characters. That this end may be at- 
tained there must be work along two main lines: 
We must honor the family and must protect it in 
every way; we must create such conditions as will 
foster the American family and will ensure the 
dominance of the best racial types. To say that 
there is no difference in the mental ability and so- 
cial value of people, to suppose that one set of he- 
reditary qualities is as valuable to the nation as any 
others, to be indiff'erent whether one element of the 
population reproduces itself faster than the rest, is 
to prove oneself ignorant of history and of life. To 
leave these things to chance and nature, to believe 
that evolution always means progress and that the 
best always survives, to suppose that things will 
somehow right themselves and come out well, is to 
show oneself both blind and foolish. 



The Preservation of the American Family 189 

I. The Question of a Dominant Type 

Which racial type will become dominant in Amer- 
ica? It is very doubtful whether ultimate America 
will be Anglo-Saxon. This might easily have been 
the case as late as the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century. But the tendencies now at work show that 
it is probably too late for any such result; it is en- 
tirely certain that if present tendencies continue it 
will, within a generation, be too late. The present 
white population of the United States comprises 
about thirty-five per cent, of Anglo-Saxon stocks, 
about thirty per cent, of Teutonic races, some 
twenty per cent, of Slavic and Latin peoples and ap- 
proximately fifteen per cent, of Celtic sources. The 
coming American race may not be Anglo-Saxon, but 
it must contain characteristics of all these races. It 
is too late now to consider the wisdom or unwisdom 
of bringing so many bloods in such large propor- 
tions to our land. But it is still an open question 
whether the Anglo-Saxon strain will largely be 
eliminated and other strains become predominant. 
It seems sometimes as if the Anglo-Saxon stock had 
determined to eliminate itself. At any rate this 
process of elimination is going forward at a rapid 
rate. 

What shall be the religious faith and political in- 
stitutions of ultimate America? Will America be- 
come a homogeneous and united people with a free 
religious life and with democratic institutions? Will 
it be predominantly Protestant or Romanist? Will 
our institutions be Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Latin, or 
Slavic? It is too early in the day for any one to 
foretell the outcome. But the democratic experi- 



190 If America Fail 

ment is not yet an assured success ; it is not yet de- 
cided whether the democratic idea will be wrought 
out to its final solution, or whether we shall become 
old Europe revised. Nor is it decided whether 
America shall develop a new type of religious faith 
by carrying Christianity to its conclusions, or 
whether we shall become an American type of Ro- 
man Catholicism. But tendencies and forces are at 
work which foretell definite issues. Whatever goes 
into the first of American life goes into all of its 
life, and there is one institution which in large part 
contains the answer to these questions and decides 
the outcome. 

The attainment of American results must come 
through the use of definite causes. The most certain 
fact in life is the reign of law. The Creator has 
ordained that certain factors shall enter into the 
making of man's life, and he himself always uses 
means in the fulfilment of his purpose. If, there- 
fore, we would ensure a certain result, we must en- 
list the causes that lead to the desired end; as in 
the wheat-field and in the laboratory, so in the na- 
tion. The fact that we are an elect nation does not 
absolve us from the duty of understanding causes 
and employing them in behalf of a divine result. 
Nay, it rather emphasizes our obligation to do this, 
for Providence in ordaining the end ordains the 
means and decrees the relation between them. 

There are certain racial qualities and character- 
istics that give a nation its peculiar life and bent, 
that enable it to do its work and fulfil its mission. 
But these are never abstract qualities and traits, 
coming without causes and growing without expla- 
nation. They are always incarnated in persons and 



The Preservation of the American Family 191 

carried in human blood; and so they are increased 
or decreased by the increase or decrease of peoples 
who carry these traits and qualities in their blood 
and life. And so it comes back to this, that the 
question which kind of racial traits and qualities 
shall decline or predominate, depends upon the in- 
crease or decrease of the different peoples who are 
found here. To expect American results without 
enlisting American causes, is sheer folly. To ex- 
pect an American national type, with the American 
stock breeding out and other and diverse types 
breeding in, is national self-deception. 

II. The Family and the Nation 

The Creator has ordained that life in our world 
shall be a succession of generations. Parents raise 
up children, and children take the place of parents. 
The family is the bridge across which the stream 
of life flows from generation to generation. Not 
only so, but the Creator has ordained that certain 
factors shall enter into the making of man's life, 
and these are Heredity, Environment, Individual 
Will, and Divine Grace. It is not for us to pit one 
of these against the other or to say that one is all 
potent while the others are negligible. Each in 
its way represents a determining factor in life ; and 
all must be taken into account. We assume here 
the great value of the third and fourth factors and 
note the place and power of the first and second. 

What we call environment or social heredity de- 
termines many things in the life of the individual. 
In a real sense every person is the creature of his 
environment : he may say in the language of Ulysses, 

I am a part of all that I have seen. 



192 If America FaU 

The community and family into which one is bom, 
the customs and traditions in which he grows up, 
the ideas and sentiments that are current, deter- 
mine in large part his ideas and ideals, his standards 
and habits. This warrants the statement of the so- 
cial psychologist ^ that 

relatively to the national peculiarities acquired by each indi- 
vidual in virtue of his participation in the traditions of his 
country, the innate peculiarities are slight and are almost 
completely obscured in each individual by these superimposed 
acquired characters. 

But this is not the whole story. Environment may 
determine many things in the individual life; but 
there is something beyond the individual. Environ- 
ment acts upon the more external elements and can- 
not touch the inner qualities and strains. Environ- 
ment may determine in large part whether instincts 
and characteristics shall be pronounced or weak; 
but it is not an originative factor and deals simply 
with qualities and possibilities that are present. 
Blood will tell in a person and a nation. The innate 
peculiarities, the social psychologist reminds us,- 
" are very important because they exert through 
long periods of time a constant bias or molding in- 
fluence upon the growth of national cultures and 
traditions." In a real sense, therefore, the factor 
of heredity determines which innate characteristics 
shall be present, and so determines the life and qual- 
ity of the nation. 

For however great the influence of traditions, of institu- 
tions, and of economic conditions in determining the course 
of life and the success or failure of a nation, the innate 

iMacDougall, "Social Psychology," p. 337. 
« MacDougall, " Social Psychology," p. 337. 



The Preservation of the American Family 193 

qualities of the population will make themselves felt, and in 
the long run will exert a preponderant influence over all 
other factors.3 

If we would know what will be the racial character 
of the people in five generations, we must note what 
strains of our populations are reproducing them- 
selves most rapidly. 

America is said to be the great melting-pot of 
the world ; here various races are meeting and fus- 
ing, and are then forming a new national stock. Un- 
der certain circumstances this figure might apply 
to the process going on here and so indicate the so- 
lution of our problems. But unfortunately condi- 
tions are such that this melting and fusing are not 
proceeding in a satisfactory way. And more un- 
fortunate still is the fact that the so-called melting- 
pot is itself a myth. As we have seen in an earlier 
chapter, unit characters do not blend; and after a 
score of generations the given characteristic may 
still appear unaffected by the repeated unions with 
foreign germ-plasm. And we have also seen how, 
owing to causes now at work, the fluxing of the 
races is not proceeding ; and so the elements are un- 
fused and unblended. 

At present conditions are such that the alien 
bloods with their racial traits and unit characters 
are outmultiplying the native bloods and may be- 
come ascendant. Which of these bloods, each with 
its characteristics and traits, will win out in the 
struggle and show the greatest survival qualities? 
There are, of course, many factors entering into the 
answer to this question ; in the last analysis, a de- 
ciding factor is the number of children in the fam- 

» MacDougall, " Psychology," p. 249. 



194 If America Fail 

ily. " Arithmetical calculation shows that if one 
section of a people reproduces itself faster, even to a 
slight degree, than the rest, it will rapidly surpass 
all other sections in number; and after a few gen- 
erations will dominate the nation." * This calls at- 
tention to a process which is changing the life of 
the nation and may give the future to foreign char- 
acters and an un-American religion. 

The significant fact is this : The bloods that show 
the largest number of children to a family and are 
consequently increasing at the most rapid rate, are 
with hardly an exception Catholic or non-Protestant 
bloods. During the past decades there has been a 
remarkable increase in the Roman Catholic popula- 
tion, especially in the Eastern States. As every one 
knows, this is partly due to immigration. But that 
immigration is not the only factor is evident from 
the following figures. In a number of States it is 
found that the birth-rate is quite low. Thus we 
have the birth-rate per thousand of population as 
follows: Indiana, 13; Iowa, 16; Maryland, 15; Cali- 
fornia, 14; Kentucky, 14. These are States with a 
relatively small number of Roman Catholics and 
with a large proportion of native stocks. These 
States all show a lower birth-rate than France, 
which has a declining population. In other States, 
however, we find the birth-rate per thousand of pop- 
ulation as follows : New York, 22 ; Rhode Island, 24 ; 
Massachusetts, 25; Michigan, 23; Connecticut, 24. 
These are States with a relatively large number of 
Roman Catholics and with a large proportion of 
foreign peoples. According to the census of 1900, 
in Connecticut there were 173,000 married women; 

*Whetham, "The Family and the Nation," p. 208. 



The Preservation of the American Family 195 

of this number, 66,000 were foreign-born whites; 
and it is found that these 66,000 foreign-born mar- 
ried women gave birth to exactly the same number 
of children as the remaining 107,000 of native stock. 
We need not search far to find the causes of the de- 
cline of Protestantism in many of our States. One 
of the chief causes is the empty cradles in Protestant 
homes. 

In America, three distinct and diverse types of 
religion are contending for supremacy. The issue 
will not be decided in favor of that type of religious 
belief which is most true in the abstract. It will be 
determined in large part in favor of that type of 
religion which shows the most stable family life, 
which produces the greatest number of children, and 
so has the most effective survival qualities; which, 
in a word, honors the family most highly. The ques- 
tion of the future of religion in America, whether 
Protestant or Romanist, is a question of babies. 

The family is the means through which life is 
carried forward from generation to generation ; and 
the family is the agency through which the factor 
of heredity becomes predominant in life, whether in 
the person or in the nation. And so it is in and 
through the family that the issue is decided which 
racial traits and hereditary qualities shall become 
dominant or shall be eliminated. It is in and through 
the family that the issue is being decided in Amer- 
ica between the various bloods, diverse customs, dif- 
ferent types of religion, and conflicting political 
ideals. The American stock, Protestant in religion, 
democratic in spirit, is disappearing because of the 
number of unmarried adults and the few children 
to a family; and the Latin and Slavic stocks, Cath- 



196 If America Fail 

olic and autocratic, are growing because of early- 
marriages of the people and the number of children 
per marriage. If America is to contain a strong 
Anglo-Saxon strain and become Protestant and 
democratic, our American people must be willing to 
marry, to become home-makers, and to raise a fam- 
ily of children. The American environment and at- 
mosphere may do much to create in the people an 
American spirit. The efforts of the church in evan- 
gelism and education may win some converts to the 
Protestant faith. The Church exerts a divine, re- 
demptive power in determining a people's ideals and 
shaping its life ; the State is a force mighty to con- 
serve a people's life and to promote its well-being. 
None the less, the secret of our national future is 
wrapped up in the life and fortune of the family. 
Through it is decided the destiny of the nation and 
the type of life that shall become dominant. Equally 
with the Church and the State, the family must be 
enlisted in the kingdom and the future of America. 

III. The Perpetuation of the American Family 

The making of an American race is conditioned 
upon the preservation and power of the American 
family. Two aspects of this question demand brief 
notice : Firsts we must know what are the causes at 
work within the nation which determine the type of 
family life and the number of children; secondly, 
we must deal with the social and industrial condi- 
tions in society which determine the force and fate 
of the family itself. In this section we consider the 
first aspect of the question. 

Many causes are at work within and without the 
home which are changing the type of family life. In 



The Preservation of the American Family 197 

all of our cities, East and West, there has been a re- 
markable increase in the number of apartment- 
houses with accommodations for many families. 
But there is one ominous fact with reference to all 
this, and that is the almost total absence of children 
in those apartments. In some of them it is frankly 
stated that children are not allowed. Yet a very 
large proportion of these families are American and 
belong to the more prosperous group of the middle 
class. And this means that our American people 
are not willing to accept the care of a family and 
raise children for the Republic of America and the 
kingdom of God. 

These false views and ideas must pass, and we 
must revalue the family and understand its mission. 
The family is not established for selfish ease, but is 
an ordained means of race progress. We must ex- 
pect American men and women to accept the sacra- 
ment of parenthood and. raise a family of children 
for the kingdom of God. We must dare to say and 
teach that a childless home is either a great misfor- 
tune or a great crime. It is a misfortune when a 
healthy, intelligent, prosperous, and religious hus- 
band and wife are without children. It is equally 
a misfortune when one or both parents are weak 
and sickly and can have no children. But it is a 
crime when husband and wife through selfishness 
refuse to raise a family. And it is a still greater 
crime when they resort to various means to prevent 
the birth of children. 

There is no use in men and women praying for 

the coming of God's kingdom and expecting a great 

future for the Republic, who are unwilling to enter 

the marriage relation and raise a family of chil- 





198 If America Fail 

dren. It is vain for our American people to expect 
that America will become Protestant and democratic 
so long as they refuse to accept the privilege of 
parenthood and thus allow the American blood to 
become extinct. An American, Protestant, demo- 
cratic blood that has fewer than three children to 
a family, can never conquer a foreign. Catholic, 
autocratic blood that has more than four children 
to a family. There is no hope that Protestantism 
can conquer Romanism in our land by the method 
of conversion alone. Protestantism that does not 
have the survival quality of children in the family 
will wane and disappear. The future of America as 
an American, Protestant, democratic people, depends 
in the long run upon the perpetuation and increase of 
the people with those traits and characteristics that 
are most in accord with our American life and mis- 
sion. Birth-control may be wise on the part of the 
less desirable portion of our population ; but birth- 
release is imperative on the part of the more Ameri- 
can stock. 

There is no reason to suppose that the American 
people are less fertile than any other race. If the 
American people wished it they could have as many 
children per marriage as any other race. Why do 
they not wish it? This is the heart of the question ; 
it is here that we find the key to the future. Some 
partial reasons are found in the false social stand- 
ards that prevail ; in the love of luxury on the part 
of some; in the unwillingness of many men and 
women to bear the burden of a family. But, after 
all, these reasons are themselves results and not true 
causes. There is one other reason lying below and 
behind all; Causes have imposed upon the family 



The Preservation of the American Family 199 

a social situation which makes men and women re- 
luctant to bear children. And this brings us face 
to face with the next factor. 

IV. The Social and Economic Basis 

The preservation of the family and the creation 
of an American race are conditioned upon the trans- 
formation of our social and industrial life. 

For we must deal with the causes which are press- 
ing upon the family and are making the American 
people reluctant to raise children. In a large sense 
the problem is an economic and social one. Hence 
it demands a careful study of our economic life and 
a resolute determination to change industrial con- 
ditions. 

1. The family as a social institution has a neces- 
sary economic basis that must receive due consid- 
eration. Some students of social affairs declare that 
the provision of an adequate economic basis will 
solve the problem of the family and will prevent the 
decline of the middle class and the passing of the 
American stock. This is clearly an overstatement. 
Where things are vital it is not necessary for us to 
establish any priority in logic or in values. How- 
ever, there can be no real improvement in family 
life without an adequate economic basis. This pro- 
vision of a proper income for the family will greatly 
aid effort along other lines. So long as this factor 
is neglected, there is little hope of any real solution 
of the problem or any increase in the American 
stock. This demands a national policy which shall 
seek to make every man an efficient economic unit 
and shall then guarantee him an adequate income 
for his family. It must be made possible for the 



200 If America FaU 

middle class to marry and raise a family of children 
without the fear of privation and suffering on their 
part. This may mean some radical changes in the 
economic system ; it will certainly mean that a small 
class shall not hold property claims which enable 
them to draw large incomes from the labor of others ; 
it will also mean that overcapitalization of an enter- 
prise shall be regarded as a high crime that demands 
full restitution; it will mean that through wage 
boards the state shall have power to determine what 
is an adequate wage and to ask that it be paid. 

2. We must increase the stability of the family 
and promote homeowning. The decrease in the 
number of homeowners is one of the most ominous 
facts in our land. Yet, as we have seen in an earlier 
chapter, our present industrial system is making 
homeowning increasingly difficult for large numbers 
of people. In the first place it is difficult for many 
families, on account of small income, to attempt to 
buy a home. Then in our industrial cities with their 
many family tenements it is impossible for the fam- 
ily to own its own dwelling. Beyond this, in our 
present system it is unwise for the family to at- 
tempt to buy a home on the instalment plan. The 
tenure of employment in many occupations is so un- 
certain that homeowning is a handicap. The work- 
ingman who is buying a home gives large hostages 
to fortune and practically signs away his liberty. 

To meet this condition several things are neces- 
sary. The worker must have greater permanence 
of employment. He must have an equity in his job 
and must not be displaced without sufficient cause. 
Something can be done by collective bargaining; 
but this does not fully meet the need. The worker 



The Preservation of the American Family 201 

must become a partner in the enterprise, with a 
partner's ownership in the tools, a partner's voice in 
the management, and a partner's equity in the in- 
dustry. This will give greater permanence to the 
home life, ensure each worker some property rights 
in society, and stabilize the family. 

3. We must lift the economic pressure that is 
upon the middle class of industrial workers. Ma- 
chinery has been speeded up to the limit and almost 
to the breaking-point; and this means fatigued 
workers. Millions of workers have a ten-hour work- 
day, and in many industries some thirty per cent, 
work seven days in the week and make eighty-four 
hours and more. Investigations in many cities show 
a direct relation between hours of labor, speeding 
up, and income; and the number of divorces, the 
amount of liquor drinking, and the death-rate.^ 

So far as any one can see, machine production 
will continue indefinitely. Hence all our programs 
must keep this fact in mind. But the power of ma- 
chinery can be controlled more directly by the peo- 
ple and can yield larger human values to all. Ma- 
chinery has increased man's productive power many 
fold; in some industries, not less than eightfold, 
while in others it is fully a hundredfold. Thus far, 
however, machinery has brought no corresponding 
decrease in the hours of labor, no commensurate in- 
crease of income, and no apparent lessening of in- 
dustrial strain. It has been estimated that with the 
machinery at man's command all of the work of the 
world could be done and every worker have an ade- 
quate income, yet with no one working above two 

'■ Health Insurance, Public Health Bulletin No. 76, U. S. Treasury 
Department. 



202 If America FaU 

hours and a half a day. This demands some change 
in the industrial system. 

4. We must learn how to control the social and 
industrial processes in the interests of society. The 
modem industrial process is making against the 
home; it is creating an industrial proletariat and 
thereby is endangering the democratic experiment. 
The individual person or family can do little to 
withstand this process and save itself. But society 
itself can control this process, can direct its course 
of development, and can make it serve the Republic. 

If America is to become American and fulfil its 
destiny, there must be some fundamental changes 
in the ideals and standards of the people; the new 
ideals must realize themselves in new social condi- 
tions; the new conscience must build itself into a 
new economic order. Our repentance must be a re- 
pentance unto social reconstruction and political 
righteousness. The various individuals of our land, 
the men of high ideals and of good conscience acting 
alone, can do something to change conditions and 
stay the decline. But to solve the problem before 
us there must be social action. The economic pres- 
sure must be lightened, and homeowning must be- 
come possible and desirable to the industrial worker. 
The income of the male wage-earner must be suffi- 
cient to maintain a family in fair comfort and effi- 
ciency. The growth of industrial feudalism must 
be stopped, and industrial brotherhood must be 
established. Beyond all, the divorce evil must be 
destroyed, and the home must be preserved. The 
actual progress of humanity, as Professor Hobhouse 
says,** 

• Hobhouse, " Social Evolution and Political Theory," p. 53. 



The Preservation of the American Family 203 

depends far more on the survival of the best than the elimi- 
nation of the worst. Eugenically considered, the broad duty 
of society is so to arrange its institutions that success is to 
the socially fit. And this is possible only in proportion as the 
social order is based on principles of a just and equitable 
organization. 

This demands brave thinking and heroic treatment. 
But the need is urgent and the issues at stake are 
fateful. Thousands of men are wilHng to be char- 
itable where few are ready to be just. The world is 
full of men who are willing to repent of other men's 
sins but are unwilling to put away their unbrotherly 
practises. 

5. In fine, there must be such a combination of 
factors and influences as shall bring about an in- 
crease in the number of people of high mental ca- 
pacity, and a decrease in the proportion of people 
of inferior capacity. As we have seen elsewhere, 
causes are at work which have produced three re- 
sults: (a) decreased the number and proportion of 
children born of native and superior stocks; (b) 
increased in a marked degree the proportion of peo- 
ple of alien stocks; (c) increased the number and 
proportion of inferior types and low-grade intelli- 
gence. How far these results have much the same 
causes we need not discuss; but the facts seem to 
suggest a very close connection. (See " Report of 
Psychological Examining in the United States 
Army," Chap. 6.) 

It has been assumed that all was going well in 
America ; it was further assumed that whatever de- 
fects appeared could easily be cured by education 
and religion. No doubt we need a wiser and more 
efficient educational system ; but education alone can- 



204 If America Fail 

not meet the need. It is essential that the churches 
reconceive their mission and bring religion to bear 
upon the whole life of the people. But religious ef- 
fort that begins and ends with the individual is not 
sufficient. Education and religion, it is certain, can 
only develop qualities and capacities that are poten- 
tially present; they cannot increase potentiality or 
create capacity where they do not exist. The de- 
fects are due to heredity and to defective social con- 
ditions; they can hence be corrected by changes in 
conditions and by a changed birth-rate. Some means 
must be found whereby the influx of foreigners of 
low mental capacity may be reduced and the pro- 
portion of births in low-grade families shall be low- 
ered. And in a more positive way, if America is to 
succeed and democracy is to be a reality, some means 
must be found whereby the proportion of children 
of high grade shall be increased. There are many 
factors and influences that must contribute to these 
ends; but in the last analysis these all function in 
and through the family. 

In the far future, if America fails, men will not 
find it difficult to name some of the chief causes of 
that failure. They will say that the American ex- 
periment began under the most favorable conditions 
and ought to have succeeded. The people had a 
great opportunity and were called to do a new and 
wonderful thing in the world; they had the people 
and the blood to make a great nation and to serve 
the world-wide kingdom of God. But alas, they 
forgot their high calling and sought success in the 
wrong way. The people wasted their resources and 
lived only for the present. They did some great 
things in the development of business and trade; 



The Preservation of the American Family 205 

but they mortgaged the nation's hope in so doing. 
The people possessed initiative and individuahty to 
an unusual degree ; but their strength became their 
weakness. They allowed monopoly to grow, the cost 
of living rose, the industrial pressure increased, 
homeowning became difficult, and the family de- 
clined. The men and women of Puritan stock and 
English blood loved ease and lacked the sacrificial 
spirit, and so they refused to bear the burden of a 
family. They allowed men of other bloods and traits 
to outpopulate and displace the Puritan stock, and 
so America lost its distinctive mission and ceased 
to be Protestant, democratic America. The homes 
of the people were the finest in the world, but their 
cradles were empty. Thus the Republic mortgaged 
its hope and America ceased to be American. 

" If we can keep the Protestants asleep a few 
years longer," said a Roman Catholic leader, 
*' America is ours." No doubt about it, American 
Protestantism is asleep sound enough to satisfy the 
Romanist. Beyond question the Protestant stocks 
are declining and Catholic stocks are becoming dom- 
inant. If present tendencies continue for three gen- 
erations more, the Eastern half of the United States 
will be negligibly Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. It 
is not yet too late to change the issue. It may be 
too late a score of years hence. The supreme duty 
of those who believe that America is called to de- 
velop Anglo-Saxon institutions, to become a demo- 
cratic people, and to possess a free religious life, is 
threefold: to know the facts; to change the social 
order and lift the handicap against the family; to 
raise a family of children for the American Republic 
and the kingdom of God. 



XI 

THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE 

Is America called to reproduce the life and institu- 
tions of some old-world people, or to combine the 
ideals and institutions of a score of peoples and pro- 
duce a composite picture, or to be a distinct nation 
among the nations of earth with a life and charac- 
ter of its own? If we accept the first course it is 
evident that we really have no national calling and 
mission. If we prefer the second course we find 
that all history fairly discredits the experiment. But 
if the third question suggests the true answer, then 
everything shows that we are failing to make our 
calling and election sure. For peoples from all 
lands and nations are coming to us, peoples of dif- 
ferent bloods and race types, peoples with diverse 
social customs and religious ideas. It is true that 
many of these peoples are casting off their old cus- 
toms and are becoming Americanized in their ways. 
But when two bodies meet, each affects the other, 
and the resultant is different from either. America 
is in danger of becoming an aggregate of diverse 
peoples, a group of competing races, a mass of sec- 
tional interests, a people with a wandering goal. 

The duty to be itself, to live its own life, to realize 
its own ideal, to fulfil its distinctive mission, is the 
primary duty of every nation. Charity, we are told, 
begins at home. " He that careth not for his own, 
hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." 
206 



The Americanization of the People 207 

It is fitting indeed that America should be the ref- 
uge for the oppressed of earth. It sounds well on 
the Fourth of July to talk about our wide-open 
gates for all the nations. But there is another side 
to this question. Does not a nation owe something 
to itself and to its future? Can a nation fulfil a 
great mission in the world without a distinctive life 
of its own? If the history of Israel teaches any- 
thing, it teaches that Israel must become a distinct 
nation in order to have anything distinctive to give 
to the world. If America has any distinct mission 
to fulfil, then America must safeguard its own life 
and must not allow its own ideal to be lowered. 
The prophet of Israel rebuked his people for the rea- 
son that " Ephraim hath mixed himself among the 
peoples." The prophet in America would see that 
the peoples had mixed themselves among the Ameri- 
cans. And the result in both cases is about the same. 

I. The Need of an American Mind 

America must become a nation and develop a na- 
tional mind. We are now a people ; we are not yet 
a nation. We have a common life; we have little 
national consciousness. Many things have contrib- 
uted to this end — the emphasis upon local authority 
and government, and the incoming of large masses 
of foreign peoples. This has been accentuated by 
the diverse sections of our country and the growth 
of competing interests. We are in danger today of 
becoming an aggregation of competing groups and 
antagonistic sections. The employers and manufac- 
turers are creating a group interest ; and the work- 
ingmen are creating a different group solidarity. 
The social and industrial world is in danger of 



208 If America FaU 

breaking up into two diverse and exclusive groups, 
with little common interest and no regard for each 
other's welfare. Not only so, but there is a sec- 
tional cleavage that bodes ill for the future. The 
West is developing a feeling of self-sufficiency — 
almost of contempt — for the East. The East under- 
rates both the intelligence and patriotism of the 
West. Besides, we are in danger of consolidating 
certain races and creating race groups. In politics, 
in business, in church affairs, the same disposition 
is seen. 

The American people are provincial. They have 
the provincial mind, the partial outlook. " I had 
rather be a lamp-post on Broadway than mayor of 
Cheyenne," is hardly a typical saying, but it repre- 
sents a point of view. In fact New York City, 
though it boasts of its cosmopolitanism, is probably 
the most provincial city on the continent. " I pre- 
fer the West with its democracy and hopefulness, 
to the conservatism of the East," is a common re- 
mark west of the Rockies. These people all love 
America and believe in its future. But there is lit- 
tle that can be called an American mind. At pres- 
ent we are little more than a group of sectional 
outlooks and partial interests. In case the flag were 
attacked all would no doubt rally to its defense at 
whatever cost. In the World War we exhibited a 
national cohesion and united spirit equal to that of 
France or Britain. Yet this is only half the story 
and does not guarantee a national spirit and com- 
mon mind. 

Beyond this, other lines of cleavage have appeared 
which may well cause anxiety. The World War 
has shattered many delusions both in Europe and 



The Americanization of the People 209 

America. Every one knew that we were a people 
of mixed blood and ideals. But every one had sup- 
posed that the melting-pot was doing its work, and 
we were one nation. Alas, the melting-pot is a 
delusion, and we are still an aggregation of races. 
It was natural of course that the peoples here 
should feel strong sympathy for their fathers and 
brothers in the old homelands who were fighting for 
existence. No one censured them for this: in fact, 
it would have been surprising had it been other- 
wise. But lines of cleavage have appeared and 
suspicions and antipathies have revealed themselves 
that are deep and radical. 

All this shows the great need of the nation. 
America must become a nation with a national con- 
sciousness and a national solidarity. We must real- 
ize that the nation has a life of its own, and that in 
this common life each shall find his own life en- 
larged and glorified. America must become to all 
of us a faith, an ideal, a religion, the glory that 
warms our hearts, the cause that represents the 
will of God for man. 

II. The Americanization of the Peoples 

The nation that would be strong and enduring 
must be homogeneous and must assimilate the di- 
verse peoples that enter into its composition. This 
lesson is emphasized on every page of history, and 
to illustrate it in detail is to tell the story of the 
rise and fall of a hundred nations. No nation can 
live long and fulfil a great destiny that is made up 
of warring and repellent elements. Every great na- 
tion of the past has been a comparatively homoge- 
neous people. It is true that no nation has had a 



210 If America Fail 

strictly pure blood ; for in the purest races there is 
a blending of bloods. But no great nation has ever 
been made of widely divergent racial bloods and 
types; a hundred times the experiment has been 
tried, but some national weakness has appeared, and 
the nation has dissolved. 

Another lesson history teaches: Where the races 
and bloods have been diverse, no real assimilation 
and amalgamation has taken place. They have 
never really stood on an equality. One strain or 
another has gained the advantage and has become 
predominant and finally determined the national life. 
Where lines of race and caste appear, perfect equal- 
ity is out of the question. In other nations this has 
been a source of friction and weakness. Here it 
will be a flat denial of our democratic principle. In 
our land there are scores of nationalities, repre- 
sented in some cases by millions of peoples; and 
some of these — English, Germans, Negroes, Chi- 
nese, Italians, and Magyars — differ a whole diam- 
eter from one another and from ourselves. We can- 
not grow a national soul and fulfil our national 
destiny with all these different elements remaining 
distinct. America must become a united people with 
a blending of races in terms of equality if it is to 
live long in the earth and realize the democratic 
ideal. 

We cannot here discuss the wisdom of permitting 
so many peoples of such diverse races to come faster 
than they can become assimilated, though this de- 
mands consideration. Certainly every nation has a 
right to maintain its own life and preserve its own 
institutions. It has a right to say who shall enter 
its borders, to declare that peoples shall come no 



The Americanization of the People 211 

faster than they can be assimilated, to give the 
preference first of all to religious and political refu- 
gees of all nations and to determine the settlement 
of these peoples after they reach our shores. With- 
out discussing this question, we may notice the other 
side of our duty, which is even more urgent — assimi- 
lation of the foreigners within our land. There are 
many causes and influences at work keeping these 
various peoples apart and preventing their full 
assimilation. 

First is the tendency of these foreign peoples to 
flock together, to form groups, and thereby to sepa- 
rate themselves from Americanizing influences. A 
large proportion of these new immigrants have come 
from the villages of Southern and Eastern Europe ; 
nearly all of them are unskilled laborers and so they 
must take the first work that offers. Naturally 
enough they drift into the cities and industrial cen- 
ters; here they live together in districts of their 
own and have few points of contact with our own 
people. Many of the men are employed in railroad 
work and in mining-camps ; hence they are isolated 
from all Americanizing influences and may never 
come in contact with any Americans except the pay- 
master. In our cities there are many foreign sec- 
tions, with a Little Italy, a Little Russia, a Little 
Hungary, and so on to the end of the list. These 
diverse elements remain apart, and thus assimila- 
tion is impossible. There would be a serious prob- 
lem of assimilation even if these new-comers were 
scattered generally throughout the country where 
they would be open on all sides to American influ- 
ences and could be quickly reached. But the prob- 
lem becomes tenfold more serious when these peo- 



212 If America Fail 

pies of different speech, of alien blood, with unlike 
traits and diverse ideals, are massed together in 
cities and in industrial centers with few friendly 
contacts with our American thought and life, and 
made impervious by alien institutions to American- 
izing influences. 

III. The Agencies of Americanization 

In much of the talk about Americanization there 
are some serious omissions. We expect these peo- 
ples to become Americans, to understand our Amer- 
ican ideas, and to fulfil their obligations, without 
providing either the incentives or the means. In a 
positive way, by intelligent means, we must promote 
Americanization. Many agencies and means must 
contribute to this end ; of these, there may be noted 
here the public schools, labor-unions, and the Chris- 
tian churches. 

For decades, almost from the very beginning, the 
public school has been honored as a great American 
institution and one of the most potent agencies of 
social assimilation. Here the children of all nation- 
alities sit side by side and use the same language. 
They study the same lessons, they note the great 
events of our nation's history, they consider the 
great ideals of the nation, and are taught loyalty 
to the one flag. The very atmosphere of school- 
room and playground does much to determine the 
ideals and attitude of the children. It is almost im- 
possible to overestimate the value of the public 
school as an Americanizing agency. 

But unfortunately strong influences are at work 
to thwart the beneficent purposes of the public- 
school system and to negative its results. For years 



The Americanization of the People 213 

the Roman Catholic Church has pursued a policy 
of unrelenting opposition. It has done everything 
in its power to eliminate Bible reading and religious 
instruction from the schools, and then has turned 
around and denounced them as godless and immoral. 
Not content with this, it has established parochial 
schools, especially in the cities, among the foreign 
people, and has exerted its authority to the utmost 
to drive children out of the public schools and into 
its own schools. In the public schools the children 
are taught the English language; they study our 
American history in impartial text-books; better 
than all, they mingle freely with American people 
and acquire the American point of view. But in 
many of the parochial schools the children hear 
teachers who use foreign languages; the histories 
used have a Catholic coloring ; loyalty to the Church 
is made supreme; in many cases the children leave 
the Church schools untrained in speaking English, 
grounded in the doctrines of the Church but un- 
fitted for life in a democracy. The policy of the 
Roman Catholic Church with reference to the public 
school is making it difficult, if not impossible, to 
assimilate and Americanize the foreign children and 
train them in American ways. The American pa- 
triot who can contemplate all this without anxiety 
and fear, is very blind or foolishly optimistic. 

We must extend the public-school system and in- 
crease its efficiency as an Americanizing agency. 
There is a disposition on the part of many people 
to make light of the system, to regard it as a state 
charity provided for the benefit of the poorer classes ; 
hence the children of the rich are more and more 
being sent to private schools ; and large tax-payers 
P 



214 If America Fail 

are objecting to the expenditure for the public 
schools on the ground that they receive no benefit 
from the system. No policy could be more short- 
sighted than this ; no policy could be more un-Amer- 
ican or more calculated to retard the necessary work 
of social assimilation. The public school is not in 
any sense a charity provided for the benefit of the 
poor and needy; it is one of the most potent and 
beneficent measures for the promotion of national 
life that has ever been devised by the heart of man. 
In many of our cities the public school is about the 
only agency that is at work in behalf of the assimi- 
lation of the people. The churches in our cities have 
weakly and wickedly run away from the people, 
and have moved up-town where " the desirable peo- 
ple " live. They have left the great, needy crowded 
districts of the cities to the public schools and the 
Roman Church. Without hesitation one can say 
that the schools are doing a hundred times more in 
some of our cities in behalf of the social assimila- 
tion of the various elements, than are all the 
churches. We rejoice in what the schools are do- 
ing; but we are anxious to have the churches begin 
to do the work for which they were placed here in 
the world. With reference to the public school, one 
duty is plain and paramount: the schools must be 
sustained in every possible way ; their efficiency must 
be increased to the highest degree; they must be 
made so attractive and so necessary that all Cath- 
olic parents will see their marked advantages and 
will insist upon sending their children to them. In 
this way we can either compel the reconstruction 
of the parochial school or can ensure the complete 
predominance of the American school. 



The Americanization of the People 215 

The value of the labor-union as an Americanizing 
agency has hardly been recognized. In a real sense 
a trade-union is a school of democracy and citizen- 
ship. It is a democratic body. Questions concerning 
the trade are debated in open meeting. The value of 
team-work is emphasized. Men learn to look at ques- 
tions from the point of view of the group at least. 
The members, whatever their nationality, meet on 
terms of equality. Often, as I have sat in a labor 
meeting watching the proceedings and listening to 
the discussions, I have felt that here is one of the 
most potent training-schools in democracy. 

But unfortunately the labor-union, as we know it, 
is a very imperfect instrument. First of all, only 
a small proportion, not over fifteen per cent., of 
American wage-workers are members of trade- 
unions. In Britain the situation is reversed, and 
fully ninety per cent, of the workers are organized. 
Several things have prevented the wider organiza- 
tion of workers in this country. A large proportion 
of the immigrants who come here are unskilled 
workers. This stands in the way of their member- 
ship in trade-unions. Many of these men do not 
understand English, and so they do not seek or find 
membership in labor organizations. Thus far we 
have trade-unions in which men of like crafts are 
organized. And this means the virtual exclusion 
of unskilled workers. Perhaps the most potent in- 
fluence making against labor-unions has been the 
opposition of employers. In other lands the value 
and necessity of labor organizations are now ac- 
cepted by all. Here, however, large employers, es- 
pecially the great industrial corporations, have 
taken an attitude of determined opposition. This 



216 If America Fail 

opposition is one of the most unfortunate facts in 
our American life. It betrays a fatal blindness on 
the part of the commercial leaders of the country. 
It is one of the chief causes of our industrial anar- 
chy. And it is one of the obstacles in the Ameri- 
canization of the people. Only a fraction of the 
workers are organized in labor-unions; these com- 
pose a kind of aristocracy of labor. The great mass 
of the workers, the foreigners mainly, those who 
most need the training of unionism, are left outside 
of the Federation of Labor. These unorganized 
workers are left to shift for themselves; they be- 
come the prey of demagogic agitators ; they fall out 
of sympathy with our American ideas and are a 
menace in our national life. 

The attitude of the American people must change 
with respect to the labor-union. Employers will 
surely not only recognize the value of labor organi- 
zations, but they will enter into sjnnpathetic coop- 
eration with them. Then there must be some radical 
changes in the methods and policies of labor organi- 
zations. Workers must be more generally organized. 
And the organization should probably be by indus- 
tries and not in narrow trades as at present. To 
allow the mass of workers to be organized or rather 
unorganized, as at present, is to prevent their Amer- 
icanization. Worse still, it is to create the condi- 
tions of social unrest and industrial anarchy. To 
encourage the organization of workers and to see in 
labor-unions a potent Americanizing agency and 
school of democracy, is the wise course for today. 

And this brings us to the last factor, the work of 
religion, and especially of the Christian religion, in 
the assimilation of the foreign elements and their 



The Americanization of the People 217 

transformation into loving and faithful Americans. 
In all ages the mightiest factor in a people's life has 
been its religion. The chief factor with respect to 
a man, says Carlyle, is his religion; of a man or a 
nation of men. It was religion, the worship of one 
God, that transformed a number of suspicious and 
hostile tribes into the one people, Israel. We over- 
estimate the power of armies and underestimate 
the power of ideas in the government of a people. 
Thus India has said through Keshub Chunder Sen, 
that it is Jesus Christ and not Britain that rules 
India. " Our hearts have been conquered by him 
and not by your guns. And it is for Jesus, and for 
Jesus only, that we yield up the diadem of India." 
In the gospel of the Son of man we have a religion 
that can unite the diverse elements of our land and 
transform them into loyal subjects of the King of 
kings. In that gospel we have the fundamental con- 
ception of the Fatherhood of God, which implies 
the brotherhood of mankind. In the Son of man we 
have a center around which the men of all nations 
gather. In the one Mediator whom God has pro- 
vided, we find One who has broken down the middle 
wall of partition between Greek and barbarian and 
has made of the many his one kingdom. In the 
Cross of Christ is the power of God that can subdue 
the heart, transform the life, and renew the being. 
The other factors are all good enough in their way, 
and we can rejoice that by any means men are be- 
ing fitted for American citizenship. But the most 
important, the most potent factor is the gospel 
of Jesus Christ faithfully preached and lovingly 
lived. 
The gospel, and the gospel alone, can win these 



218 If America Fail 

peoples and transform them. The gospel, and the 
gospel alone, can change them into loyal Americans 
and vital Christians. But it must be the whole gos- 
pel, the gospel of the kingdom of God, with its right- 
eousness, its love, its brotherhood; it must be the 
gospel in life and in action, the gospel that touches 
life on all sides and brings a whole blessing to man, 
a gospel proclaiming the Fatherhood of God, a gos- 
pel filled with a passion for justice, a gospel that 
shall find its issue in the democracy of all life. 
Apart from such a gospel there is no hope, no salva- 
tion, no future for America. 

IV. The Practise of Brotherhood 

Three-fourths of all the discussions of Americani- 
zation are based on false premises, and it is a ques- 
tion whether they are not doing more harm than 
good. Many persons would accomplish this most es- 
sential work by compulsion. They would prohibit 
the circulation of papers in foreign languages ; they 
would force the foreigner to learn the English lan- 
guage ; they would suppress every custom and tradi- 
tion, however dear they may be to these peoples; 
they would compel these people to adopt and ape 
our ways, be they congenial or not. In all this they 
complicate the problem and defeat real Americani- 
zation. Such methods have been tried a score of 
times in the past, and always with the same result. 

Those who would engage in this work should un- 
derstand the principles of social psychology. The 
most potent forces in life are indirect ; the influences 
that mold life are mainly unconscious. The psychic 
factors of life, as ideals and sentiments, traditions 
and customs, are the factors that color thought and 



The Americanization of the People 219 

determine volition. The psychic process of imita- 
tion and sympathy is the chief factor in man's spir- 
itual development and the prime condition of all 
collective mental life. The surest and shortest way 
to change the point of view of these foreign peoples 
and to prepare them for American citizenship, is to 
meet them in sympathy and friendliness; it is to 
make our American ideals attractive and our na- 
tional traditions helpful ; it is to surround them with 
just and generous influences; it is to show such a 
worthy spirit as shall awaken their sympathy and 
evoke their loyalty. This is less a matter of institu- 
tional effort and conscious propaganda than of hu- 
man fellowship and sympathetic contact. It is for 
us, therefore, to clarify our national ideals and 
make them attractive to the various peoples; it is 
to develop such sentiments and customs as will win 
the allegiance of all; in fine, it is to unite all the 
people in the bonds of a common faith and national 
hope. 

The agencies of Americanization we have consid- 
ered are all important, and separately and together 
can do much to interpret our American idea and 
adjust men in our national family. But beyond all, 
beneath all, it is evident, there must be a mind and 
spirit which alone can unify the people and make us 
a nation. The gospel of brotherhood well practised 
by American people themselves, will be a most po- 
tent influence in winning these new comers and sav- 
ing them for the kingdom of God. This is the one 
thing that can save them from irreligion and turn 
their national aspirations into the service of the 
Republic. 

America from the beginning has been a refuge 



220 If America FaU 

for the oppressed of earth. This was so in the early 
days; it is no less true today. A large proportion 
of the immigrants who come to us from year to 
year have left the old homeland to escape religious 
and political oppression ; many are in revolt against 
the social injustice of the Old World, many are in 
rebellion against the church they have known. 
These peoples, young, vigorous, active, usually have 
come to this land believing it to be a land of liberty 
and opportunity. They come with a passionate 
yearning for justice and fellowship, with open 
minds and hearts, ready to throw themselves into 
any movement that makes for social justice and 
genuine democracy. They come expecting to find 
greater opportunity in life and to see a more Chris- 
tian and brotherly type of church life. But what 
do they find ? Many of them come here on borrowed 
money, and this means a chain around their necks. 
Speaking a strange language and unused to our 
ways, they are unable to take care of themselves; 
so they fall into the clutches of padrones and poli- 
ticians who exploit and fleece them often without 
let or hindrance. Many of them are massed to- 
gether in industrial centers with little regard for 
justice, decency, or health. Here they are driven by 
bosses and treated with every indignity. Every- 
where they find that our civilization is dominated 
by the materialistic spirit, that our cities are given 
over to industrial activity. Everywhere they find 
a misgovernment more subtle and more oppressive 
than any they have known at home. They find our 
people given to money-making and pleasure-hunting, 
and utterly cynical with reference to civic better- 
ment and social justice. They find themselves de- 



The Americanization of the People 221 

spised by the American people and regarded only 
as mere labor units and industrial cogs. The Amer- 
icans whom they meet seem wholly absorbed in com- 
mercial interests and have no conception of the stir- 
ring social and philosophical movements of the 
world. The people they meet have no great historic 
ideals or national hopes beyond money and success. 

This is not all, but many of these people come 
here to escape the oppression of the church, and 
their hearts are in revolt against the forms of re- 
ligion they have known. This is the churches' op- 
portunity to meet these people with kindly deed and 
interpret to them our free American religion. The 
failure of the churches furnishes opportunity for 
sowers of tares. Among these foreign-speaking peo- 
ples all kinds of religious and social doctrines are 
preached by bitter and persistent agitators. In the 
Old World, socialism means social justice and eco- 
nomic opportunity. With some of these agitators 
here, it means the overthrow of all existing institu- 
tions and especially of that bulwark of injustice 
they call the church. 

What is the inevitable and tragic result? In a 
short time many of these immigrants lose their en- 
thusiasm for social justice and economic reform and 
become indifferent to all such things. They regard 
a vote as a political asset to be sold to the highest 
bidder or to be used in promoting one's own pref- 
erences. The fine idealism which would have made 
them splendid Americans, dies out of life, leaving 
them disheartened materialists; soon all interest 
and enthusiasm go, and existence suddenly becomes 
dull and stale and commonplace. They sink down 
into a sodden, inert mass in our cities, interested 



222 If America FaU 

only in money-getting and given to pleasure-hunting 
like the rest of the Americans. Some of them re- 
main restless and ill at ease, ready to welcome any 
doctrine of social reform and change; not a few 
of them become bitter atheists in religion and de- 
structive anarchists in social thought. Thus the 
men who might have reenforced our national ideal- 
ism, become a dangerous element in our cities and 
a menace to our free institutions. Of the millions 
of immigrants who have come to our shores during 
the past generation, fully nine-tenths have been Ro- 
man Catholics. Fully one-third of these are lost in 
the first generation to the Catholic Church ; and fully 
one-half are lost in the second generation. But 
they do not become Protestants; in fact the Prot- 
estant churches are hardly making their presence 
known to many of them. They lose the only form 
of religion they have known; but they do not find 
a better type. They fall into non-religion and often 
into irreligion. They do not remain Roman Cath- 
olics ; but they do not become Protestant Christians. 
This shows a very serious situation and suggests 
a very definite duty. In her very significant volume 
on " The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets," Miss 
Addams indicates a positive line of action. We 
must meet these immigrants in a friendly spirit and 
turn to advantage their insatiable desire for justice 
and brotherhood. A distinct and well-directed cam- 
paign is necessary if this gallant enthusiasm is ever 
to be made a part of that old and still incomplete ef- 
fort to embody in law — ^the law that abides and fal- 
ters not, ages long — "the highest aspirations of 
justice." ^ 

> " The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets," p. 145. 



The Americanization of the People 223 

We cannot save this fine idealism and turn it to 
advantage by neglecting the people and allowing 
them to be exploited by economic interests. We can- 
not meet and win them by the methods now in oper- 
ation in our cities, by starting a few poorly equipped 
mission stations where a narrow, doctrinal, individ- 
ualistic, self-seeking gospel is preached. We can- 
not meet their needs and interpret our Christianity 
to them and turn their thoughts to higher things 
by a few poorly printed tracts that deal only with 
the individual soul and ignore the social relations 
of life. Christianity is a social religion from center 
to circumference; and just so far as profession and 
practise of it are purely individualistic they are not 
truly Christian. Christianity by its very nature is 
an undying passion for justice and brotherhood, 
and when that passion dies Christianity is gone. 
These peoples have been accustomed to think and 
feel in terms of group life and welfare ; and to meet 
their need we must think in their terms. What we 
need, therefore, what we must have, is a religion 
that will set forth the great fundamental conception 
of the kingdom of God on earth, that will interpret 
our American ideas to the people; that will make 
them see that this longing for justice is the authentic 
voice of God in the soul. We must show them a 
religion whose signs are brotherhood and fellowship, 
a religion that will turn the ethical idealism of the 
people to the service of the Republic. Hundreds and 
thousands of Jewish peoples are coming to our 
shores bearing the pain of centuries of wrong but 
cherishing the prophetic hopes of their nation. If 
only these prophetic hopes could be released into 
our national life, they might revitalize our own fal- 



224 If America Fail 

tering faith. If only the undying passion of this 
people for righteousness could be properly directed, 
they might fertilize the nation's life and lift it to- 
ward its goal. 

America, to be true to its traditions and to be an 
asylum for the oppressed, must show a more hu- 
man spirit toward the strangers who come here. 
It must receive them with courtesy and confidence ; 
it must follow them with advice and protection and 
place them to their best advantage ; it must not al- 
low them to be exploited in industry and herded 
like cattle in the cities ; it must surround them with 
helpful and not harmful influences and give them 
the full guaranty of the Constitution. More than 
that, it must nourish and not suppress the social as- 
pirations of these peoples. It must honor their 
idealism and turn it as a refreshing stream upon 
the social waste of our nation. Honored and nour- 
ished, the faith and idealism of these people may 
mean a new birth of freedom and justice; neglected 
and repressed, these aspirations and hopes may 
break out in anarchy and revolution. The material- 
ist is often a disenchanted idealist. The revolution- 
ist is often a dreamer repressed. 



XII 

THE SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL 

" There are two ways," says an early Christian 
manual, " the one of life, and the other of death. 
And the difference between these ways is great." 
These alternatives face men and nations, 

Life's business being just the terrible choice. 

Few men deliberately choose the wrong way, but 
myriads of men fail to choose the right way, and so 
the choice goes by default. " I do not wonder at 
what men suffer," said Ruskin, " but I wonder at 
what they lose." There is a danger that we may 
fail to read the meaning of the hour and that our 
choice may go by default. If ever any nation needed 
prophetic guidance, that nation is America. Per- 
haps there are prophets in our midst, but we fail 
to hear them for the clatter of the streets. It was 
Cassandra's fate to have her warning scorned in 
old Troy. It was Troy's doom that her warning 
went unheeded. This suggests the discussion of 
these two concluding chapters. 

I. The Power of Ideals 

It is the greatest mistake possible to construe life 
in terms of one factor and to ignore all others. It 
is not only contrary to fact, but it makes impossible 
any real understanding of life and any true progress 
in society. There are, as we know, certain physical 

225 



226 If America Fail 

factors that count much in a people's life and deter- 
mine the form of their institutions. There are also 
definite economic forces that are very potent and 
determinative. But in the last analysis the most 
potent and determining forces in the world, accord- 
ing to the sociologist, are not physical but moral and 
spiritual. The most significant factors in life are 
the work of mind and not the grinding of machin- 
ery.^ " Civilization," says another writer,- " is at 
bottom the creation and transmission of ideal values 
by which men regulate their conduct." " While we 
are far from endorsing any idealogical theory, yet 
ideas and ideals have ever been, since civilization 
began, the chief instruments by which man has con- 
trolled his adjustments with his fellows." ^ The 
decadence and extinction of nations are due not to 
fatal necessity or physical causes, but to wrong 
choices, moral weakness, and national misjudg- 
ments. And the obverse is true, that the strength 
and life of nations are due to right ideals, moral 
valuations, and spiritual solidarity. " The founda- 
tion of every state," says Seeley, " is a way of 
thinking." 

The future of America, whether it be success or 
failure, depends upon the ideals we cherish and the 
valuations we make. It is vital that we cherish 
right ideals of national life, that we make true valu- 
ations of national greatness and seek worthy ends 
in national progress. It is not enough for a man 
to follow a light, for many a man has followed an 
ignis fatuus into the bottomless mire; we must be 

» Small, " General Sociology," p. 639. 

» Ellwood, in the " American Journal of Sociology," January, 1915. 

• Ellwood, " The Social Problem," p. 190. 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 227 

able to know the pole-star and to steer by its 
direction. 

But quite as necessary as this work of cherishing 
right ideals is the necessity of agreeing upon the 
ideals we shall cherish. A nation may cherish false 
ideals; it may also cherish diverse ideals. Suppose 
that the ideals of a people should be not only unlike 
but even conflicting; in that case the nation will 
break up into groups, each with its own ideals, its 
owTi standards, interests, policies. Confusion will 
result, friction will be engendered, the nation will 
lose unity and may crumble into fragments. 

This is precisely the situation that faces us to- 
day. In our society many things indicate that the 
old central loyalty is passing and a partial group 
loyalty is taking its place. The vital interests now 
are employers' associations, labor-unions, women's 
federated clubs, trusts, combinations, and countless 
other organizations and combinations. Everywhere 
we are met by groups and parties with divergent 
aims and ideals ; we see people arranging themselves 
around special interests and partial truths. Every- 
where we see men with one-sided views, with partial 
valuations, with class passions, with partisan poli- 
tics ; men are inclined to view every question in the 
light of their partial ideal; few are ready to view 
their partial interest in its relation to the whole. 
Any one who has met and talked with employers 
and bankers must be alarmed and saddened at their 
partial views of truth, their inveterate tendency to 
measure everything from the point of view of their 
own advantage and interest. Any one who has 
mingled much with labor leaders and fraternized 
with workingmen, has been no less grieved to see 



228 If America FaU 

how prone they are to make partial valuations and to 
cherish class ideals. More than that, one who is 
familiar with people East and West, must have been 
troubled at the sectional interest and provincial at- 
titude of so many. Powerful centrifugal forces are 
at work in our civilization. There is danger lest 
society, like a whirling wheel, fly into pieces. This 
danger will increase unless there can be a strength- 
ening of the centripetal forces. 

All informed people feel the centrifugal pressure 
and realize the danger. But few see the real need 
and try the right remedy. Some are trying to meet 
these divisive tendencies by denunciation and sup- 
pression; many are looking to legislatures and 
courts; a few are trying the power of propaganda 
and campaigns. But these all fail to meet the situ- 
ation for the reason that they deal with symptoms 
and not causes. There is only one way to save the 
day and unite the people ; and that is to bring them 
under the power of a moral idealism and a religious 
passion. " Where there is no vision, the people 
perish." 

In view of this it is necessary to cultivate a spirit 
of moral idealism and to learn to live in the pres- 
ence of our ideals ; it is necessary to learn to cherish 
right ideals and to begin to agree on the ideals that 
are primary. " If there is hopeless disagreement 
in opinions and ideals among individuals, it is idle 
to suppose that their social life can be characterized 
by harmony and unity." * Americans must there- 
fore learn to think and see and feel together. There 
must be an atmosphere of love and good-will, of 
sympathy and service between man and man, be- 

* Ellwood, " The Social Problem," p. 192, 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 229 

tween class and class, between peoples of different 
bloods and traits. We need a new soul, a contented 
state of mind, an American set of standards, a com- 
mon vision of our destiny. America must be a 
faith, a vision, a chivalry, a religion, before America 
can ever become a great people, ensure its future, 
fulfil its destiny, and live long in the earth. 

II. Destroying the Dominant Mammonism 

It is necessary to destroy the current mammon- 
ism and to moralize wealth. To us as a nation great 
prosperity has come. Wealth is being created at 
an unparalleled rate; the comforts of life are mul- 
tiplying, and the condition of many people is im- 
proving. And now what shall we do ? " Do ? " 
cries the spirit of the age. " Why, go right on in 
the same way; build larger cities; make every one 
more comfortable; extend our commerce, and fill 
the seas with our ships; control the trade of the 
world and become the bankers of the nations. Do? 
Why go right on and develop our resources. Speak 
the masterful word among the nations; let us be- 
come the strongest, richest, and most comfortable 
people on the globe." This way went all the na- 
tions of the world — Egypt and Assyria, Babylon and 
Rome, whose ruins now fill the earth, and whose 
stories make the tragedy of history. 

The people are bewitched by the prevailing mam- 
monism. They are in danger of confusing their 
moral standards and losing the sense of spiritual 
values. They are mistaking means for ends and 
are turning moral values upside down. Under the 
dominance of the current industrialism man has be- 
come the means and capital is the end. The last 
Q 



230 If America FaU 

term in the industrial process, the determining fac- 
tor in every issue, is profits and not people. To 
increase profits we are robbing the children of their 
rights and making them bear the burden of our 
prosperity. To increase profits we are compelling 
women to leave the home and are ruining their sa- 
cred powers of motherhood. To increase profits we 
are making mad the pace of industry and are scrap- 
ping men at forty-five. To increase profits we are 
building hideous, unwholesome, unsanitary cities 
and are filling them with dwarfed, spiritless, and 
unhappy human beings. 

It is time to call a halt in this cult. The gospel 
of wealth has been preached for generations in sea- 
son and out of season, in college classroom and from 
the lecture platform; it has been inculcated at the 
mother's knee and emphasized in the Christian pul- 
pit. " Thee must get rich, my son," said the Quaker 
mother to her boy; "thee must get rich honestly; 
but thee must get rich." One does not wonder that 
Carlyle should characterize the economic doctrine 
of his day as " that dismal science " or should say 
that this doctrine of mammon was the falsest gos- 
pel that had ever been preached. We do not wonder 
that Ruskin should flame out against the economic 
doctrines of his time and should declare that " The 
model man of this dismal science was fit only to sit 
for the portrait of a lost soul." 

The spell of money over the people must be broken 
that the soul of America may be liberated. The mo- 
tive of industry must be reversed, from industry for 
profits to industry for service. " Let there be worse 
cotton," said Emerson, " and better men." Woe to 
the nation that offends against the little child, said 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 231 

the Son of man. It were better for a nation that its 
industries were sunk into the depth of the sea, than 
that it should build its prosperity upon the bodies 
and souls of little children. What can break the 
spell of this mammonism and liberate the soul of 
America? So far as I can see there is only one 
thing that has power to do this, and that is Chris- 
tianity. But unfortunately men are not agreed con- 
cerning the meaning of Christianity and are not 
ready to go the whole length with Jesus Christ. 
And unfortunately Christianity has itself too often 
come under the spell of the world; in fact Protes- 
tantism has too often sanctioned if not sanctified 
the accumulation of wealth.' Whatever may have 
been its failure or success in the past, its call and 
duty are clear today. It must break the spell of 
money if it would be true to itself and would save 
the nation. 

Men must be brought under the spell of the true 
Christian ideal. We need to realize in what the true 
wealth of a nation consists. There is a gospel ring 
in these words of Ruskin : ^ " There is no wealth but 
life, life, including all its powers of love, of joy, 
and of admiration. That country is the richest 
which nourishes the greatest number of noble and 
happy human beings." Again he says in words with 
a pathetic and prophetic appeal : 

It may be discovered that the true veins of wealth are pur- 
ple — and not in rock but in flesh. Perhaps even that the 
final outcome and consummation of all wealth is the produc- 
ing as many as possible full-breathed, bright-eyed, and 
happy-hearted human creatures. . . Nevertheless it is open, 

" Mecklin, " Introduction to Social Ethics," Chap. 11. 

* Ruskin, " Unto This Last, ad Valorem," and " The Veins of Wealth," 



232 If America Fail 

I repeat, to serious question whether among national manu- 
factures that of souls of a good quality may not at last turn 
out a quite leadingly lucrative one. 

We need to set more value upon the riches that 
are within, and less upon the riches that are with- 
out. We need a generation of men who are so con- 
vinced of the worth of man that they will set small 
value upon merely material good. "Among us 
English-speaking peoples especially," says Prof. 
William James, 

do the praises of poverty need once more to be boldly sung. 
We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise any 
one who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his 
inner life. If he does not join the general scramble with the 
money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in 
ambition. When we of the so-called better classes are scared 
as men were never scared in history at material ugliness 
and hardship ; when we put off marriage until our home can 
be artistic and quake at the thought of having a child vdth- 
out a bank account and doomed to manual labor, it is time 
for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irre- 
ligious an opinion. 

The fear of poverty among the educated classes, he 
declares, is the worst moral disease from which our 
civilization suffers. And so we come back to the 
great truth taught long ago but so despised in our 
day, " A man's life consisteth not in the abundance 
of the things that he possesseth." We repeat the 
truth taught so early and reaffirmed by the Son of 
man, "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by 
every word of the Lord doth man live." America 
is growing rich in material values. But what shall 
it profit a nation if it gain the whole world and lose 
its own soul ? We may show the greatest per capita 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 233 

wealth of any people in the world. But what amount 
of material wealth can a nation give as a substitute 
for its soul ? 

The besetting danger of America is industrial- 
ism — the exploitation of our natural resources, the 
dominance of capitalism, and the subordination of 
everything to wealth. We have already gone far 
on the road toward this blighting condition. We 
are losing our love for the soil ; we are building in- 
dustrial cities and are luring into them our youth 
and hope; we are rattling into a land of factories, 
chimneys, machines and movies; we are being be- 
witched by the cheap glamour of street lights and 
electric signs. And we are bartering our heritage 
of health and happiness for mere money wealth, and 
a very inequitable distribution of wealth at that. 
To resist the present movement seems almost as 
hopeless an undertaking as to whistle down the 
north wind. Yet this is the very work that must 
be done by the churches and by all who love the 
Republic. 

The dollar has reigned long enough in our land. 
The time has come for us to establish a new scale 
of values, to humanize industry, and to make man 
the end and wealth the means. We must say that 
values created by society shall belong to society. We 
must refuse to be dazzled by the shows of wealth and 
must say aloud that wealth is to be honored just so 
far as it is honorable. We must teach all to believe 
and say that no gifts to charities and churches can 
atone for greed and cunning in gaining money. We 
must say that no man can make money as a pirate 
and give it away as a Christian. In the seer's vision 
he beheld a city whose streets were of pure gold like 



234 If America Fail 

unto transparent glass. The vision of the seer is 
the duty of the people. Gold will never find its true 
place in this world till it goes down under foot and 
becomes the servant of man. The time has come 
to think of this earth not as a mere counting-house 
whose symbol is a dollar-mark, but as a shining 
planet on which God's children love and sing. 

III. Exalting the Spiritual 

Honesty of heart, coolness of head, steadiness of 
will, a consciousness of God, a hungering after 
righteousness, a devotion to duty, an exaltation of 
the spiritual — these are the things that ensure na- 
tional permanence and power. Immoral things, un- 
brotherly, unjust things — greed, injustice, suspi- 
cion, disunion, division — these are the things that 
mar and destroy nations. The great things that 
move and sustain states are not material but 
spiritual. 

The decline and death of nations have their 
sources in the life and character of men. Men have 
unjust and unbrotherly laws, bad politics, and 
wrong industrial systems, because they are selfish 
and unjust themselves. The nature of the units 
determines the nature of the mass. No builder, 
however skilful or powerful or wise, can make a 
strong wall out of crumbling bricks. Deeper than 
the need of a new political program is the need 
of more character in the people. No scientific 
process, no social system has been devised that can 
make a golden society out of men with leaden in- 
stincts. Along with the demand of the hour for 
better social institutions is the demand for men 
who love truth and hate lies, men who hunger and 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 235 

thirst after justice, men who fear God and hate cov- 
etousness, men who love the nation and are ready 
to sacrifice for its sake. We need more character 
in the rank and file of the people, more sincerity 
of heart, more energy in our will, more dynamic in 
our religion, more love, more brotherliness. 

There are many evils in our nation, many dan- 
gers that menace ; but the greatest dangers just now 
are in our own national blindness. There is a bald 
materialism which makes material values and in- 
dustrial expansion the supreme interest. There is 
an engrossment in personal interests with an almost 
complete neglect of public welfare. But deeper than 
all, more subtle than all, is a blind optimism which 
makes it impossible for us to realize that there can 
be any danger, and coupled with it, a fatness of 
soul which makes us insensible to spiritual values. 
America, like Laodicea, is rich and increased in 
goods and feels that it has need of nothing except 
more goods and wider markets. And all the time 
America, like Laodicea, knows not that it may be 
poor and naked and miserable and blind. 

Above all, we need a fresh, clear, vitalizing faith 
in God. Religion, we have seen, is the chief factor 
in man's life and the most potent force in a nation's 
growth. 

From history we ham that the great function of religion 
has been the founding and sustaining of states. And at this 
moment we are threatened with a general dissolution of 
states from a decay of religion.'^ 

Belief in God has been called the conservative and 
progressive principle ; it is the cement of a nation's 

' Seeley, " Natural Religion," p. 202. 



236 If America Fail 

being and the chief source of a nation's greatness. 
Suppose there is a decline of religion, suppose a 
nation loses God out of its consciousness; then the 
beginning of the end has come with swift and inevi- 
table decay, and the temple crumbles into dust. 

No man has seen this more clearly than James 
Bryce in his great study " The American Common- 
wealth " ; and no one has more clearly discerned the 
national danger than he : ^ 

Sometimes, standing in the midst of a great American city 
and watching the throngs of eager figures streaming hither 
and thither, marking the sharp contrasts of poverty and 
wealth, an increasing mass of wretchedness and an increas- 
ing display of luxury, knowing that before long a hundred 
millions of men will be living between ocean and ocean un- 
der this one government — a government which their own 
hands have made — one is startled by the thought of what 
might befall this huge yet delicate fabric of law and com- 
merce and social institutions were the foundations it has 
rested on to crumble away. Suppose that all these men 
ceased to believe that there was any power above them, any 
future before them, anything in heaven or earth but what 
their senses told them of. Suppose that their consciousness 
of individual force and responsibility, already dwarfed by 
the overwhelming power of the multitude and the fatalistic 
submission it engenders, were further weakened by the feel- 
ing that their swiftly fleeting life was rounded by a per- 
petual sleep: 

Soles occidere et redire possunt; 
Nobis, quam semel occidit brevis liix, 
Nox est perpetua una dormiendafi 

Would the moral code stand unshaken and with it reverence 
for law, the sense of duty toward the community and even 

•"American Commonwealth," p. 582, 583. 

• Suns may set and rise again, 
But we, when vanished this brief light. 
Must sleep in an unending night. 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 237 

toward the generations to come? Would men say, Let us eat 
and drink, for to-morrow we die? History, if she cannot 
give a complete answer to this question, tells us that hitherto 
civilized society has rested on religion and that free govern- 
ment has prospered best among religious peoples. 

We must hold fast to our own faith in God ; we must 
realize that he is our life and the length of our 
days. (Deut. 30 : 20.) 

America is called to do a great, new, wonderful 
thing in the world — to exalt man and to put down 
things from the place of dominion into the place of 
service. It is called to be a just, brotherly people, 
to take thought for the least and lowliest, and to 
give him an equity in the common heritage. Have 
we the courage to accept our commission and do 
this great new thing? Dare we become a Christian 
nation? 

IV. Finding Our True Strength 

We must find our strength and confidence not in 
wealth and armaments but in justice and truth. 
The way of life for a nation is the way of justice, 
of fair play, of faith — faith in the power of truth, 
faith in the right of righteousness to be triumphant, 
of confidence in the moral texture of the universe 
and of assurance that " the meek shall inherit the 
earth." The way of death is the way of greed and 
ambition, of trust in numbers and wealth, of mili- 
tary preparedness and big navies, of cunning diplo- 
macy and national bluster. 

Men do not always read the meaning of history ; 
they interpret events according to their point of 
view. Some say that the World War shows the 
folly of a nation being unarmed and unprepared 



238 If America Fail 

for war and proves the utter futility of the policy 
of non-resistance. Yet has not this world catas- 
trophe shown that preparation for war not only 
does not avert war but is itself the very cause of 
war? Armies and armaments do not prevent war 
but invite it. Two facts stand out clear and dis- 
tinct in the history of Europe: The nations jealous 
of one another prepared for war; and the nations 
thus prepared found what they prepared for. If 
then we adopt the policy of militarism and enter 
the race for large military preparations, we shall 
simply transfer to the new world the rivalries of 
the old. If we begin arming ourselves we shall 
alarm the other nations, and they will arm to match 
us. Then the mad race for first place will begin 
afresh. As we increase our armaments, two or 
more nations may form a league against us, and 
thus the race will never end till a cataclysm befalls. 
Besides all this, if we rely upon battle-ships and 
armies we shall feel secure in our might and will 
not think it necessary to be just in our international 
dealings and to cultivate world-wide good-will. 
America is called upon to do a great and Christian 
thing and not the common gentile thing. Has it 
the faith and courage to do this? Or will it fail in 
the hour of testing and do the smaller and worser 
thing? If we join the mad race for naval supremacy 
and military might and cease to cultivate justice 
and good-will, we shall lose out of the word America 
everything that gives it meaning in universal his- 
tory. In so far as we seek to become a military 
power we reject the teaching of Jesus Christ and put 
our trust in carnal means. In so far as we put our 
trust in battle-ships and armies, we deny our faith 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 239 

in God, in justice, in equality and brotherhood. 
Granted that the other nations of the earth think it 
necessary to maintain standing armies and create 
war material; we are not called to reproduce the 
life and institutions of the old world. To do that is 
to renounce our national ideals and commit national 
apostasy. 

The exaltation of the spiritual and the pursuit 
of justice contain the only guaranties of national 
security and world peace. We need to remember 
that war has causes ; and these are mainly economic. 

No man can make a thorough and impartial inquiry into the 
causes of the present European conflict without perceiving 
that their roots run deep into the soil of trade rivalry. . . 
Modem wars are primarily trade wars.^o 

So long as capitalism rules the nations, so long as 
we have surplus capital seeking profitable foreign 
investments, so long as nations feel free to exploit 
weaker peoples, so long as armies and navies are 
used to protect investments abroad, so long will the 
causes of war be at work and war itself be inevi- 
table. But let capitalism come under the control of 
society, let industry become cooperative and demo- 
cratic and be conducted for the sake of life, let so- 
ciety end the reign of injustice and oppression at 
home, and let the nations eliminate international 
competition for the markets of the world, and the 
causes of war will have ceased. To talk of national 
security while allowing the economic causes of war 
to grow, is sheer self-deception. To hope to end 
war by preparing for it, is fatuous and foolish. To 
seek true values and democratize trade will carry us 

" Hill, " The Rebuilding of Europe," pp. 33, 34. 



240 If America Fail 

a long way toward true peace. Is this impossible? 
Then peace is an empty dream and the kingdom of 
God is a mirage. 

Will the nation know the things that make for its 
peace? If we seek to be like all the nations and 
become a warlike power, if we seek to steal our 
neighbor's trade and try to control the world's com- 
merce, we shall deny our calling and lose our way. 
If we live by sight rather than by faith, if we seek 
to build our greatness upon bigness and wealth, we 
shall make the Great Refusal and shall take the 
road to the world's rubbish-heap. If America dared 
to be just in all its dealings and believed that this 
is a righteous universe, it could rest its case in the 
justice of its cause and could feel secure. But be- 
cause we forget God and are proud in spirit, be- 
cause we are willing to exploit others and live for 
trade, because we cultivate race prejudice and class 
spirit, we fear to trust in God and fall back upon 
battle-ships. In America as in old Judah, there 
sounds out the voice of the prophet : " In returning 
and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confi- 
dence shall be your strength." This sounds like 
sentiment to our modern unbelievers and so-called 
practical men; and so it sounded to the little poli- 
ticians in Jerusalem. But Jehovah also is wise ; and 
he has laid the foundations of the earth in the bed- 
rock of righteousness. Today as of old, " The fruit 
of righteousness is peace, and the effect of right- 
eousness is quietness and confidence forever." 

If divine revelation has any permanent message 
for the world we may well heed the prophets of 
Israel. Above all we may heed the word of the Son 
of man who declared, " The meek shall inherit the 



The Supremacy of the Spiritual 241 

earth." The great prophets of the Old Testament, 
without a changing word or deviating line, all de- 
clare that the peace and security of Israel in her 
international relations were to be secured only when 
within her own borders oppression ceased and jus- 
tice was done; not till the people were themselves 
just could the sword be beaten into plowshares; but 
when justice was done within, the nation was se- 
cure without. And the Son of man in charging 
men to seek first the kingdom of God and its right- 
eousness, gave the divine assurance that all other 
things shall then be added. There is no instance in 
history of a wholly just nation that has ever been 
crucified for its faith and fidelity. And if some na- 
tion, like the Christ himself, should be crucified by 
the strong, its cross would become the power of 
God unto the world's redemption. It may be neces- 
sary for some nation to become a Messianic nation 
for the sake of the world's redemption. Would 
that America were fit for this Messianic part, either 
with or without the crucifixion! The nation that 
has not the courage to be just within and without, 
must perforce depend upon the sword. The nation 
that dares to be just, that dares to make the Most 
High its habitation and defense, has the prestige of 
the universe behind it and can stand as long as the 
Throne stands. 

The strength of a nation is in the loyalty and co- 
hesion of the people ; the foundations of its institu- 
tions are laid in the faith and ideals of men. If the 
study of national life in the light of psychology 
teaches anything, it teaches that the cohesion and 
discipline which are so necessary, cannot be formed 
by legislation nor be produced by machinery, but 



242 If America Fail 

must grow naturally out of the people's life; they 
must be the result of a moral idealism, a religious 
passion. But this is the very trouble. This relig- 
ious flame, this moral passion, seem to be lacking. 
We have plenty of churches and millions of mem- 
bers ; these are devoted in a way to their causes and 
interests. But there is so little passion and flame 
in all this; there is no unifying ideal which fuses 
the hearts of men ; the churches cannot witness for 
unity and brotherhood while divided as they are. 
What is needed — the only thing that can save our 
civilization — is some new interpretation of religion, 
the great Christian ideal of the kingdom of God, 
which shall sweep the world, lift us out of our de- 
votion to small and petty things, fuse our hearts in 
a common devotion, and send us out to live for the 
common good. In the next chapter we shall note 
the meaning of the Christian ideal and the things 
that have yet to be done to bring the nation under 
its dominion. 



XIII 

THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NATION 

It is necessary to be very definite and concrete in 
this discussion. It is easy to deal in generalities 
and miss realities. No doubt some may object to 
the foregoing statement of remedies on the ground 
that too little has been made of Christianity, too 
much of other things. Everywhere the plea is ad- 
vanced that 

the one great need of America at this hour — the one and only- 
thing that can save us — is the Lord Jesus Christ. What we 
need is more of Christ, more of his spirit in the hearts and 
lives of men, more obedience to his will, a thorough ac- 
ceptance of his principles. 

This is precisely the thought that is implied in all 
the chapters of this book. But instead of merely 
talking about Jesus Christ, I prefer to show what 
his life means to us and what would follow if his 
spirit were honored in our land. One could use 
some of the hackneyed phrases of religion that might 
satisfy the unthinking but would mean little. I pre- 
fer rather to indicate the things that are implied in 
the practise of Christianity in the life of the nation. 
Let us beware of mere patchwork, of mistaking 
form for substance and of taking a part for the 
whole. It is the mission of America to realize the 
democratic idea. We must create an American race 
and preserve the American family. We must es- 

243 



244 If America Fail 

tablish social justice and conserve our national re- 
sources. But all of these things are parts of a whole ; 
and the whole is more than the sum of its parts. 
We might have all of these things, separately or to- 
gether, and yet fail in our mission. These things 
one and all are incidents in a larger issue. That 
paramount issue is the religion of Christ. If Amer- 
ica can become a Christian nation in the best sense 
of the term, it will realize and safeguard democracy. 
For democracy is impossible without Christianity. 
Only in the Christian truths of divine Fatherhood, 
human brotherhood, the sacrificial spirit, the ideal 
of the kingdom of God, do we have the gi'ound and 
guaranty of democracy. It would be easier to build 
a house in the air than to build democracy without 
religion. If America can become Christian it can 
become and remain America. The Christianization 
of America is therefore the supreme issue before 
the nation at this time. And as this is the su- 
preme task, so it is here that Christianity makes 
its supreme failure or most glorious success. 

I. The Lesson of History 

For nineteen hundred years the gospel of Jesus 
Christ has been at work in the world. Like a 
mighty conqueror the Son of man has marched 
down the centuries, bringing men unto God, sav- 
ing them from their sins, overturning an evil here, 
ending an abuse there, breaking the shackles from 
millions of men, lifting the gates of great empires 
from their hinges, and changing the whole drift of 
history. The gospel has achieved some great and 
far-reaching results. It has saved millions of souls 
and has created the Christian home. It has created 



The Christianization of the Nation 245 

the fellowship of the spirit, known as the church, 
and has done great things in the development of 
truth and the blessing of man. It has inspired the 
missionary enterprise and has sent men forth to the 
ends of the earth to carry the message of life to lost 
men. 

It has greatly influenced man's social life and has 
inspired a thousand forms of helpful service. Some 
noble and notable attempts have been made at va- 
rious times to interpret the Christian ideal in social 
terms and realize a Christian social order. Savona- 
rola in old Florence had a vision of a Christian city 
and bravely sought to make Jesus Christ king of 
the city. The Anabaptists in Central Europe caught 
a vision of the kingdom of God, and both preached 
the gospel of the common man and tried to realize 
a Christian order. John Calvin in Geneva believed 
in the redemption of all life and tried to build a 
Christian city. Knox and his colleagues in Scotland 
saw in vision a redeemed people living in covenant 
relations with the invisible king; and they sought 
to bring all life under the divine law, from the king's 
throne that should be established in righteousness 
to the merchant's balance that should be used in 
faithfulness. The Puritans and Pilgrims in Massa- 
chusetts colonies, the Baptists in Providence Planta- 
tions, and the Quakers in the Holy Experiment in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, sought to found a 
social order in the name of Christ and to realize his 
purpose in all life. 

Yet, as we survey the history of the centuries, we 

are puzzled and distressed. The gospel seems to 

fail in achieving the largest and longest results. It 

is potent within a narrow circle, but seems ineffec- 

B 



246 If America Fail 

tive in the wider social and political realms. In age 
after age, in many lands, it has been at work doing 
great things for God and man and giving promise 
of the Christianization of life as a whole. And yet 
in every age and in every land, we find it pausing 
in its career and stopping short of the largest suc- 
cess ; there is an arrested development. Men accept 
the gospel message and profess allegiance to the Son 
of man ; but they fail to accept his full program and 
hesitate to go the whole way with him. They see 
the kingdom in part and enjoy some of its blessings ; 
they fail to see and to seek the whole kingdom of 
God and its justice. 

The results of this arrested development are writ 
large upon the face of history. In no place, either 
in Asia, in Europe, or in America, has the gospel 
been able to prove itself the power of God unto the 
salvation of the nation. It has saved individuals, 
but it has not saved society. Nations that received 
Christianity have declined and failed. The social 
conditions in some of the Western lands are far bet- 
ter than in lands where Christianity has not been 
known. But the condition of things in these lands 
excludes all boasting on our part and awakens se- 
rious misgivings. The gospel has been preached 
and known for nineteen hundred years, and the re- 
sult is Christendom — the heaviest handicap that 
Christianity has to bear. There are students not a 
few, who declare that in Protestant lands Chris- 
tianity is running out and is losing its power as it 
has done in Catholic and Eastern lands. No nation 
thus far has received Christianity fully enough to 
be saved itself or to show what Christianity can do. 

I realize fully that this is a partial story. I may 



The Christianization of the Nation 247 

be accused of pessimism and blindness in that I 
have shown the dark side and named the evil things, 
and have not sufficiently recognized the influence of 
Christianity nor measured the good forces at work. 
Many of these good influences are at work in our 
land today ; here are many of the bravest and most 
devoted men and women the world has ever seen. 
Above all, Christianity itself is here, with a peren- 
nial power of revival and renewal ; and this changes 
the whole story. No one believes in the power of 
the gospel more than I. But we must have an intel- 
ligent conception both of Christianity itself and of 
its method of work. The fact is that Christianity 
can do its work just so far as men give it the oppor- 
tunity to work. The gospel is no mere impersonal 
force that breaks down opposition and bends history 
to its purposes. The gospel works in and through 
men and is limited by the means it finds. Chris- 
tianity is a moral and spiritual religion ; its results 
in the life of men and nations depend upon its own 
qualities and upon the will and cooperation of men. 
In a word, the disobedience and folly of men, the 
vices and conditions of society, may limit the gospel 
and may negative its beneficial purposes. And this 
brings us to a second thing that is vital here : 

II. The Power of the Gospel 

The gospel of Christ, to save America, must be 
accepted in its fulness and applied in all its bear- 
ings. If the history of the past teaches anything, 
it teaches that the formal profession of Christianity 
by a people counts for little in national life ; merely 
individual and ecclesiastical religion is not sufficient 
to save society from dissolution; a partial applica- 



248 If America FaU 

tion of Christian principles can neither save the na- 
tion from decay nor Christianity from decline. 
Perhaps Christianity came too late to save the Ro- 
man Empire; the canker of evil had eaten too far 
for any remedy to avail. But it was received by 
Syria and Armenia, by Arabia and Greece, by Italy 
and Spain ; yet it has not saved any of these peoples. 
We know the sad story of the decline of religion 
and life in Western Asia; we know the story of 
medieval Italy and Spain. We know the failure 
of every nation thus far to create a Christian civili- 
zation. History either indicates that Christianity is 
weak in the wider realms of life and has no power 
to save a nation, or it proves that men and nations 
have misunderstood Christianity and have not given 
it a fair trial. The latter alternative, we believe, is 
the one abundantly demonstrated. In the words of 
Chesterton : " Christianity has not been tried and 
failed ; it was found difficult and has not been tried." 
The reason for this failure is not far to seek or 
hard to find. Men were willing to accept Christ as 
Saviour and teacher ; they were not willing to accept 
him as Lord and King. They were willing to seek 
the salvation of their souls and to make Christ the 
priest of their church; they were not willing to 
make his law supreme in the nation and to organ- 
ize society according to his will. They were ready 
to commit their eternal interests into his hands; 
but they refused to follow Christ all the way and 
to seek his full kingdom here. They refused be- 
cause they were not willing to pay the price of suc- 
cess and could not stand the justice of the kingdom. 
They were willing to follow Christ for what they 
could get from him — the forgiveness of sin and the 



The Christianization of the Nation 249 

hope of heaven. They were willing to do some of 
the things he commanded and were ready to feed 
the hungry and nurse the sick; but they were not 
willing to make his Cross the law of their lives and 
to hold their possessions in trust for his name. They 
would not accept Christ's demand for justice and 
organize their social and political life on this basis. 
They were ready enough to believe in Christ as 
Saviour and call him " Lord, Lord," in the church. 
But they were not willing to put away their injus- 
tice, to surrender their special privileges, to give 
up their profits out of men's necessities, and to be 
just and brotherly toward all men. And so they 
failed to honor the gospel, to give it a chance to 
show what it can do, to realize the full meaning 
and power of Christ. They failed to save the nation, 
to keep society from decline and corruption and to 
give any real conception to the meaning of 
Christianity. 

Now a partial Christianity is really no gospel at 
all. A half gospel may delay the decline of a peo- 
ple but cannot save it from ultimate failure. A gos- 
pel half applied may do something for men, but can- 
not save even itself from final decay. Ruskin says 
that the Venetians in the early days of their history 
were the most religious people in Europe; but they 
kept their religion confined in their churches and 
their homes. They said it would never do to mix such 
a sacred thing as religion with their business and 
politics. " The consequence of all this was," con- 
tinued Ruskin, " that their business and politics be- 
came hopelessly corrupt; and this corruption in- 
fected their churches and homes and destroyed the 
religion practised there." The gospel of Christ, if 



250 If America FaU 

itself is to be saved, must be accepted and applied 
in all its scope and power. The mere profession of 
religion, the building of churches in honor of Christ, 
the presence of good individuals, cannot save a peo- 
ple from decay and failure. That Christianity may 
avail, its principles must be built into social cus- 
toms and political institutions; its spirit must per- 
meate and transform all relations and realms; its 
ideal must become the rallying-center for the peo- 
ple's faith and effort. 

In speaking of the Christianization of America, 
therefore, I use the words in no formal and external 
sense. The Christianization of America does not 
mean a mere lip service, the insertion of Christ's 
name in the Constitution, the legislative ratification 
of the Sermon on the Mount; least of all does it 
mean the dominance of the Church over the State, 
the acceptance of a set of doctrines by a majority 
vote of the people. It is something deeper, truer, 
more real, more vital. The Christianization of 
America means the possession of His mind, a pas- 
sion for justice and fair play, humility before God 
and mercy toward men; it means the permeation 
of all life by his spirit, the acceptance of his law 
of love and brotherhood in all relations of society, 
the realization of righteousness, peace, and joy in 
the Holy Spirit by the person, in the Church, in the 
family, the community, the State, the industrial 
order. 

The fact that America is what the Supreme Court 
pronounces " a Christian nation " is not enough. 
The fact that we have many persons who believe 
in Christ and love God, will not save us. Religion 
must be applied. It must determine the relations 



The Christianization of the Nation 251 

of man with man. It must create the national mind 
and inspire the national policy. The principles of 
Christianity must be interpreted in terms of social 
life ; they must determine our treatment of the soil 
and the quality of our home life; they must create 
a national purpose to establish justice in the nation ; 
they must break down the antagonism between em- 
ployees and employers and unite them in a common 
purpose; they must become the very spirit of our 
laws and the life of our institutions; Christianity 
must make good individuals and good citizens; it 
must inspire human lives, and it- must be incarnated 
in national life. 

III. The Final Test 

1. The one only thing that can save America, 
make it great, and enable it to fulfil a high destiny, 
is the possession of the spirit of Christ. The life 
of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the very being 
of God and the interpretation of the law of the uni- 
verse. He tells us that he came not to be ministered 
unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many. The mind that was in Christ when he 
came into the world and gave himself in service of 
man, is the only mind which has warrant for itself 
in this universe of God. The mind of Christ is not 
some esoteric word of religion ; it is not the special 
attainment of a few select souls ; but it is the mind 
which all men, churchmen and citizens, are to have 
in all the relations of life. The mind of Christ is 
the law for the throne of God, for angels, for men, 
for churches, for families, for nations. If any man 
and if any nation have not the spirit of Christ, they 
are none of his. 



252 If America FaU 

The Christ has given us a further interpretation 
of the law of the kingdom. Among the nations, he 
says, they who are great seek to rule over others; 
and a man's greatness is measured by the way he 
makes others serve him. But it is not so in the 
kingdom of God. Here greatness is measured not 
by position but by service. The great in the king- 
dom are not those who rule over others, but those 
who serve them. The greatest nation is not the 
nation that conquers the most territory and rules 
the most people, that boasts of its power and uses 
this to control others. It is rather the nation that 
serves the family of nations and gives of its best 
in love, that lives not to be ministered unto but to 
minister, to give itself for the redemption of all. 
The great nation is not the one that domineers over 
the weak and takes away their liberties. It is the 
nation that upholds the weak and establishes jus- 
tice among men. In the long run, therefore, Amer- 
ica will be great in kingdom values in so far as it 
serves the family of nations and lives to bless others. 
America can never become truly great by control- 
ling the world's trade, becoming the world's banker, 
having the strongest navy, speaking the masterful 
word in world politics. This way the nations have 
sought to take; but this way lies failure. The na- 
tion that would find its life unto the kingdom must 
first lose life unto itself. The way of the Cross is 
the way to the throne for Christ, for men, for na- 
tions; and there is no other way under heaven re- 
vealed unto men. Men and nations will try to climb 
up some other way; but there is none other than 
Christ's way. 

2. Christianity can save America just so far as it 



The Christianization of tlie Nation 253 

makes men unselfish and brotherly, just and justice- 
loving, good citizens, good workingmen, good em- 
ployers, good parents; it can save America just so 
far as it makes a better home life, with men and 
women bearing children for the Republic and lay- 
ing their lives on the altar of service; it can save 
America just so far as we conserve our national re- 
sources, save our forests, conserve our fuel, feed 
our soil, and guard our forests and water-supplies; 
it can save America just so far as it teaches us to 
assimilate the various peoples here, to make our 
cities more sanitary and wholesome, to prevent the 
growth of an industrial proletariat and to establish 
industrial brotherhood. There is enough intelli- 
gence, conscience, and religion in any community in 
America to transform it from top to bottom, to abol- 
ish its slums, to purify its politics, to advance it far 
toward the City of God. But it is an individual in- 
telligence, a personal conscience, a church religion. 
The making of good individuals is not enough and 
can never save America. We must have men who 
are good citizens, who live for the common good, 
who build their conscience and faith and religion 
into social customs, industrial systems, and national 
policies. We need a community conscience, a civic 
blush, a social religion. 

The earth is holy and intended to be the home of 
God's children. To waste its resources, to ruin the 
soil, is a sin. A nation may profess allegiance to 
Jesus Christ ; but if it permit the earth to be monop- 
olized and the soil ruined, that people's religion is 
vain. The nation is one great family, and this de- 
mands that men take thought for the common good 
and subordinate personal advantage to the common 



254 If America Fail 

welfare. To create a monopoly and force up prices, 
to make the child's loaf small and the family's room 
dear, to be silent in the face of injustice, to go off, 
one to his office and the other to his merchandise, 
and allow groundlings to control the state, is both 
sin and cowardice. A people may build churches 
and be jealous for the honor of its creed; but if it 
permit corruption to thrive, childhood to be wronged, 
and greed to control society, that people's religion 
is Christless. 

3. This work of applying the teachings of Christ 
to the nation's life demands faith and courage: 
faith in the truth of Christ, faith in God, faith in 
man, faith in the right of righteousness to be tri- 
umphant ; and courage : the courage to follow truth 
wherever it leads, courage to study causes and lo- 
cate responsibility, courage to grapple with all in- 
justice — social and political — courage to be just and 
brotherly all along the line of life. The church has 
never yet had the faith and courage to follow Christ 
all the wsLj and seek supremely the kingdom of God. 
No generation of people has yet been willing to ac- 
cept the will of God. They have not wanted the 
kingdom and its justice. It would disarrange their 
plans. It would rebuke their policies. It would can- 
cel many of their privileges. It would end monopo- 
lies and compel men to be brotherly. It would 
oblige them to restore the earth and its resources 
to the people and to treat one another as equals. 
Wall Street is no more prepared to follow Jesus 
than was the Sanhedrin of old. Berlin, Paris, Lon- 
don, Washington would give him no kinder welcome 
than did Nazareth and Jerusalem. Dare we be 
Christians? Have Christian men today the faith 



The Christianization of the Nation 255 

and courage to seek the whole kingdom of God and 
follow the Lamb whithersoever he leadeth through 
the nation and in the social world? In the answer 
to this question is found at once the measure of our 
national faith and the hope of our national destiny. 
Christianity must be supreme or it ceases to be 
Christian. No nation can endure half Christian 
and half mammon. The American Republic can 
never fulfil its mission with anything less than the 
whole of Christianity and the complete Christiani- 
zation of the nation. 

4. The final test of men and nations is the king- 
dom of God. In the way they serve the kingdom 
and its uses do we read the measure of their suc- 
cess or their failure. The kingdom of God is com- 
ing in the earth; the Eternal has spoken, and the 
decree has gone forth : " The kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdom of our God and of his 
Christ." The kingdom of God is coming with us 
or without us. In the long reaches of the universe 
it may matter little what we do and are. But it 
matters everything to us whether we accept the 
kingdom and go on with it to victory. The king- 
dom has been offered to many a people in the past; 
it was offered to the Jewish race, to the Greeks, to 
the Romans, to the Spanish and Germanic races. 
They one and all failed to see it, and so have been 
cast aside and left behind. That kingdom is now 
offered to us ; and we may do much in our place to 
serve its uses and hasten the great consummation. 
But we may also fail as others have done. 

5. The Potter holds in his hand the clay of this 
nation ; the wheel whirls as the years go by. In so 
many ways, at so many points, the clay is unre- 



256 If America Fail 

sponsive and stubborn ; generation after generation, 
it refuses the potter's thought and is resolutely- 
bound to have its own way. At times one fears that 
the vessel will crumble in his hands and will be 
marred on the wheel. The marring of a life is a 
fearful sight ; how much more tragic is the marring 
of a great nation with its hopes and possibilities. 
Shall we go as so many other peoples have gone? 
Must the Divine Potter cast us aside in the end as 
so much crumbled and ruined clay? Let us not be 
high-minded but fearful. If Israel marred on the 
wheel, what reason have we to expect a different 
fate? If we refuse God's will, if we cherish evil 
practises, if we make gold our trust, if we resent 
God's touch and become, unbrotherly and divide up 
into classes, if we withhold our testimony for right- 
eousness, if we go mad after pleasure and the native 
stock declines, what else can happen but that we 
shall lose our election and go the way of all the na- 
tions whose fragments make the world's scrap-pile? 
It is too early as yet for any one to see the result. 
But history and science lend no sanction to the easy- 
going optimism of our people that all is well. Both 
contain sharp and solemn warnings. There is no 
warrant from history to suppose that our fate must 
necessarily be different from that of other peoples. 
From science we gather not one presumption against 
the decline and failure of our American society. 
Have we any reason to believe that we shall succeed 
when others have failed? Can we stand prosperity? 
No nation ever has been able to stand it. Signs mul- 
tiply that we cannot. Can we establish a real de- 
mocracy? We have been trying at this task for 
some generations; but the democratic government 



The Christianization of the Nation 257 

in America is under an eclipse. Can we establish a 
stable and enduring democratic state? The study 
of history is not encouraging at this point. Can 
we become a Protestant nation? Has our Protes- 
tant type of life those survival qualities which are 
necessary? The Protestant emphasis upon individ- 
uality and liberty has been necessary ; but an over- 
emphasis here may lead us into atomism and dis- 
union. The Protestant character has been marked 
by its initiative, its energy, its liberty and power. 
But these alone are not the survival qualities that 
are needed. Have we that cohesion and union, that 
sense of solidarity, that unselfishness of purpose 
that will lead us to subordinate all for the common 
good ? It yet remains to be seen whether our Amer- 
ican clay possesses those qualities that will yield the 
vessel unto honor. " Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked; whatsoever a nation soweth that shall it 
also reap." Every nation that has sown disunion 
and injustice, that has lived in luxury and has for- 
gotten God, has marred on the wheel and has gone 
to the rubbish-heap. Why should America think 
that it can have any special exemption? It is not 
yet too late to avert national failure. It is both a 
folly and a crime to trifle with fate. 

The making of a just, brotherly, Christian nation 
is the supremest achievement possible to any people. 
Beside this, all other attainments sink into insig- 
nificance. In this supreme achievement are included 
all partial successes. Some time on this earth a na- 
tion will exist that believes in the kingdom of God, 
honors the law of Christ, dares to follow his ideal, 
and promotes the advance of the kingdom. Some- 
where a nation will appear that has the spirit of 



258 If America Fail 

Christ, prizes the true riches, lives not to be minis- 
tered unto but to minister, and holds its treasures 
in stewardship for the redemption of the weak. 
What is the name of this nation? It might have 
been Israel, or Rome, or Germany, or England; it 
may be America or some yet unknown nation. 

The fate of America is a fact of profound signifi- 
cance not alone to ourselves but to the whole world 
and to all ages. For the success of the American 
experiment will hearten the race in its age-long 
struggle toward the kingdom of God ; its failure will 
discourage men till the last syllable of recorded time. 
The experiment of founding a democratic state and 
creating a Christian civilization began here under 
the most favorable auspices. In the matter of posi- 
tion, soil, resources, and people, the experiment was 
most fortunate and favored. So far as we can see 
it will never again be possible for the experiment 
to be tried under such favoring conditions. If Amer- 
ica fails therefore, it will mean that the attempt to 
build a democratic state and create a Christian so- 
ciety is at best a doubtful undertaking, that a strong 
presumption exists against the success of any such 
experiment in the future ; it will mean also that the 
realization of the Christian ideal must be delayed 
for generations, perhaps for millenniums. More 
than that, America's failure would discount the value 
of the gospel and give intensity to the charge that 
Christianity is unable to meet the largest demands 
and has no power to save society. Is democracy a 
great and winning principle? Is the democratic 
state the best and strongest form of government? 
Is Christianity the power of God unto the salvation 
of the world? Is human history a weary process 



The Christianization of the Nation 259 

without meaning or goal? These are some of the 
questions that are being answered for the race in 
the American experiment. 

The God of nations has given us an unparalleled 
opportunity. We are called with a high and holy- 
calling. We are offered the most magnificent oppor- 
tunity that has ever come to any people. We are 
indeed a people with the clear stamp of God upon 
us. We stand in the very forefront in the march 
of time. We know what are the things that make 
for peace and perpetuity. Behind are all the knowl- 
edge and the experience of the ages. We live in the 
full light of all the great and culminating centuries. 
For these reasons we cannot plead ignorance of the 
causes that have destroyed the nations of the past. 
Nor can we say that we did not know what would 
be the result if those same causes are permitted to 
work unchecked in our own nation. No, if we sin 
today we sin in the broad light of universal history 
and are without excuse. If we fail and fall, it will 
be because of wilful blindness and perverse heart. If 
we make shipwreck of our national faith and forfeit 
our calling in universal history, our fate and our 
failure will be without a shred of excuse or shade 
of palliation. 

America is indeed a people upon whom the end 
of the ages is come. The generations of the past de- 
sired to see the things which we see and did not see 
them. The nations of the earth turn toward us in 
hope and longing, feeling that the time of their de- 
liverance is at hand. In a hundred lands today peo- 
ple are looking across the seas to learn what democ- 
racy means, to know what Christianity can do for a 
nation. There never has come such an opportunity 



260 If America Fail 

and such a responsibility to any people. If we fail 
the world is struck to the heart and its brightest 
hope is chilled. If we succeed, a hundred peoples 
will yearn after democracy and will believe that 
Jesus is the Saviour of the world. 

If we fail — ^the words tremble on our lips as we 
speak them. If we fail, the most splendid experi- 
ment of the ages has failed. If we fail, the word 
democracy will be fatally discredited in the vocabu- 
lary of men. If we fail, men will doubt and ques- 
tion whether Christianity is really potent enough 
to redeem any nation and to create a Christian so- 
cial order. If we fail, the progress of the kingdom 
may be delayed for a thousand years. If we fail, 
and the kingdom of God shall be given to another, 
we shall have lost all meaning in universal history 
except to point a warning. 

If we succeed — ^the words go forth as a prayer 
and kindle our faith. If we succeed, we shall prove 
to the world that democracy is the finest type of na- 
tional life. If we succeed in establishing a Chris- 
tian type of social life, we shall prove that Chris- 
tianity is indeed the power of God unto the salvation 
of the world. If we succeed, we shall both glorify 
ourselves and shall promote the coming of God's 
kingdom in the earth. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Absentee landlordism, 77. 
Addams, on Americanization, 222. 
America : messianic service of, 18 ; 

mission of, 14 ; a refuge, 219 ; 

an unparalleled opportunity, 259. 
American mind, 207. 
American policy, 82. 
American race changing, 97. 
American stock decreasing, 71, 82, 

90, 94. 
Americanization of the peoples, 

206, 222, 224. 
Amiel on democracy, 147. 
Anglo-Saxon race, VI. 
Aristotle on liberty and monopoly, 

57. 
Army tests, 70. 

Bancroft : on early colonizers, 10 ; 
on Protestant principles, 16. 

Batten : on meaning of nationality, 
85 ; on unfinished tasks of de- 
mocracy, 154. 

Birth-rate: wrong, 34 ; in 
America, 91. 

Brotherhood in democracy, 148. 

Bryce on decay of religion, 236. 

Burbank on human selection, 98. 

Burke on the nation a partner- 
ship, 138. 

Capitalism in control, 43. 

Carlyle, quoted, 6. 

Carver on absentee landlordism, 

77. 
Cassandra in Troy, 225. 
Chesterton states Christianity has 

not been tried, 248. 
Children, number of, in family, 

197. 
Christian nation, 257. 
Christianity : in the centuries, 

244 ; arrested development of, 



245 ; must be accepted, 247 ; 

applied to all life, 253. 
Church, the, and justice, 121. 
Colonizers, early, 10. 
Columbus discovering America, 7. 
Conklin on decline of American 

stock, 71. 
Conscience needed, 112. 
Conservation program, 134-144. 
Cost of living, effect of, 66. 
Cromwell on England's calling, 3. 

Davenport : on race characteris- 
tics, 86, 87 ; on changes in 
America, 97. 

Democracy : defined, 15 ; an un- 
finished story, 146, 152 ; in its 
positive aspect, 150, 160 ; in in- 
dustry, 153-158 ; its unfinished 
tasks, 154, 163 ; a universal 
principle, 158 ; testing-hour of, 
184. 

Depew on power of capital, 53. 

Deserts are man-made, 131. 

Distribution of wealth, 59. 

Eliot on degeneracy of nation, 81. 

Ellwood : on distribution of 
wealth, 59 ; on power of ideas, 
226 ; on diverse ideals, 228. 

Empty cradles, 205. 

Factors of life, 191. 

Family affected by social condi- 
tions, 199. 

Family and nation, 188. 

Family life made more stable, 
200. 

Farm land and tenants, 50. 

Fortunes, how made, 56. 

Fremantle on Tyndale, 39. 

French colonies in Canada, 11. 

Revolution, 46. 



263 



264 



Index 



Get back the land, 142. 

Giddings : on mixed races, 99 ; on 

American mind, 101. 
Gladden on right to the land, 1S7. 
Gold, love of, 40. 
Goodsell on decline of home, 76. 
Gospel in Americanization, 216. 
Governors, conference of, 130. 
Grant on the passing of the great 

race, 86. 
Greece, decline of family in, 32. 

Hamilton on economic power, 155. 

Hebrew race, 99. 

Heredity a determining factor, 
192. 

Hill, D. J., on economic cause of 
war, 239. 

Hill, J. J. : on decreased produc- 
tion, 126 ; on social destruction, 
127. 

Hobhouse on survival of best, 202. 

Hodges on genius for sale, 45. 

Holt on changes in national stock, 
90. 

Howe on land monopoly, 49. 

Huns and Vandals, 78. 

Ideals in nation's life, 225. 

Immigration : stimulated, 89 ; un- 
wise, 210. 

Individualism passing, 165. 

Industrial accidents, 168. 

Industrial democracy, 156. 

Industrial proletariat, growth of, 
72. 

James, Prof., praises poverty, 232. 
Jellinek on rights of man, 15. 
Justice, defined, 117. 

Kellor on faith in people, 161. 
King on distribution of wealth, 54. 
Kingdom of God : America serv- 
ing, 19 ; final test of, 255. 

Labor unions in Americanization, 

215. 
Land belongs to people, 136. 
Land monopoly, extent of, 50. 
Law must be supreme, 110. 



Lawlessness in America, 114. 
Liberty : and monopoly, 57 ; " nay 

and yea " of, 147. 
Lincoln : on the suicide of the 

Republic, 81 ; on reverence for 

law, 117 ; on ruling others, 155. 
Lloyd George on land monopoly, 

120. 
Lower-standard people, 69. 
Luxury a blight, 29. 

Macaulay on America's future, 79. 

McDougall on national peculiari- 
ties, 192. 

Mack on industrial accidents, 168. 

Mackenzie on social justice, 119. 

Mammonism must be destroyed, 
229. 

Marsh on soil destruction, 27. 

McGee on water supply, 133. 

Mecklin on Protestantism and 
capitalism, 231. 

Mixed races, 99. 

Nash, Prof. H. S., on writing his- 
tory, VIII. 
Nationality, meaning of, 85. 
Nations, causes of decline of, 22. 
New England towns, 93. 

Parkman on French Canada, 11. 
Patrick on decline of civilizations, 

105. 
Pliny on ruin of Italy, 26. 
Potter and clay, 255. 
Preparedness, true, 173. 
Preparedness, a cause of war, 

238. 
Profiteering in America, 170. 
Protestant : principles, 10 ; stocks 

declining, 195. 
Public affairs, lack of interest in, 

166. 
Public school preserved, 212. 

Quebec, battle of, 12. 

Races, diverse, in America, 74, 99. 
Racial types : persist, 85 ; in 

America, 189. 
Racial unity necessary, 98. 



Index 



265 



Religion, decay of, 36, 236. 
Resources : conservation of, 124 ; 

wasting, 170. 
Roberts, on " unfinished program 

of democracy," 163. 
Roman Catholics and public 

schools, 213. 
Roman Catholic peoples, 194. 
Ross on national decadence, 29. 
Ruskin : on true wealth, 231 ; on 

Venetians, 249. 

Seager on control of capital, 60. 

Seeley on decline of religion, 235. 

Self-discovery, time of, 5. 

Simkhovitch on ruin of soil, 28. 

Sin defined, 37. 

Small : on capitalism, 43 ; on do- 
ing as you please, 143 ; on 
spiritual factors, 226 ; on un- 
selfish citizenship, 182. 

Smuts, General, states that " Tents 
have been struck," 164. 

Social pressure, 163. 

Socialization defined, 177. 

Socialization of industry, 179. 

Soil, destruction of, 24, 28, 125- 
134. 

Spanish settlements, 129. 



Spiritual : forces, 226 ; exaltation 

of the, 234. 
State control of resources, 139. 
Strength of nation, 237. 
Superior race, decline of, 31, 64. 

Taine on French Revolution, 46. 
Tyndale on pope-holy religion, 39. 
Types in nation, 189. 

United States Steel Corporation, 

74. 
Usher on challenge of the future, 6. 

Van Hise : on conservation of re- 
sources, 126, 134 ; on wasting 
resources, 170. 

Wallace on soil robbers, 129. 
Wealth : power of, in America, 42 ; 

concentration of, 45, 47, 53-55. 
Webster, prophecy of, as to 

America, 80. 
Westcott defines democracy, 15. 
Whetham on the family and the 

nation, 33. 
Williams on soul liberty, 12. 
World War : the close of an era, 

5 ; disturbed our peace, 172, 



H 15 88 ^ 



